Stefanie Sargnagel liest aus "Iowa"

In the organizer's words:

Iowa (Rowohlt) - the new book by Austrian bestselling author Stefanie Sargnagel is a trip to America. With biting humor and disarmingly honest, Sargnagel's view of the USA is as unmistakable as her writing: sarcastic, ruthlessly honest and yet full of sympathy, she brings us closer to rural America and gives a heart-warming account of the vital importance of female friendships, such as with her good friend, the Berlin musician Christiane Rösinger.

In 2022, Stefanie Sargnagel reluctantly swaps her comfortable Viennese sofa for a plane ticket to the USA. In Iowa, she is to teach creative writing at a college in the middle of nowhere. In the small town of Grinnell with its 8,000 inhabitants, there is nothing but endless cornfields. Along for the ride is music legend Christiane Rösinger, and together they set out to explore the nothingness. They find overweight friendly locals, traditional gender roles, giant supermarkets, incredible sausages and a jar full of pickled turkey gizzards.

In this musical reading, the author and her main character Christiane Rösinger talk about the book and their friendship - as always with plenty of humor, sarcasm and ruthless honesty.

Now, this book is by no means limited to comparing countries, which reliably puts you in a good mood. It is also, and perhaps above all, the manifesto of a friendship for which there are hardly any cultural-historical role models.It warms the heart when you read it. - Adam Soboczynski, Die ZEIT, January 11, 2024

More information about the author:

Sargnagel writes radically subjectively and very wisely about the so-called simple life, about feminism, hopelessness and depression. She is taciturn, but always gets into the narrative, draws something in between and breaks all genre boundaries. It is often hilarious, sometimes tragic.

Following Sargnagel's move to the renowned Rowohlt publishing house, Statusmeldungen and Dicht - Aufzeichnungen einer Tagediebin, Sargnagel's first novel, were published in 2018. Stefanie's second novel, Iowa, about her time as a lecturer at a small college in the USA, was published in 2023.

Stefanie Sargnagel received the audience award at the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize competition in Klagenfurt in 2016 and the jury prize at the Prix Pantheon in Bonn in 2022. Her two books Statusmeldungen and Dicht were bestsellers, Statusmeldungen was even made into a movie.

Price information:

Tickets in advance: 21 € plus fees