Wortklub: Andrea Petkovic & Nele Pollatschek / Musik: Joe Scholes

"Those who write stay ... with themselves" is the title of this evening, in which Andrea Petkovic talks about how important her work as a writer is for her life after professional tennis. Just as high-caliber: Nele Pollatschek, one of the country's best and most exciting authors. For her, fictional and journalistic writing is both a profession and a research project for her own life.
The musical guest is singer/songwriter Joe Scholes, whose songs still reflect Scholes' past as a ska pioneer.

Current books
Andrea Petkovic "Time to get out of the dust"
Nele Pollatschek "Little Problems"

In 2014, Andrea Petkovic was one of the ten best tennis players in the world. Ten years later, in her second book, she describes the pain, fears and hopes that accompanied her on her departure from professional sport. The unsparing description of her search for the afterlife became Andrea Petkovic's discovery as a writer.

Germany is probably the only country in which a distinction is made between E for serious and U for entertainment. Anyone who needs further proof that this distinction should be consigned to the dustbin of history should read Nele Pollatschek. No matter what. As a writer, publicist or journalist, she shows poise, humor and knowledge, and even her irony is so imbued with wit and warmth of heart that you want to draw a holding marker to be offended by it.

The music comes from Joe Scholes aka Joachim Uerschels, offbeat veteran and former frontman of Cologne ska legends The Braces, who was influenced by the sound and style of Terry Hall and The Specials. The 13-year-old Catholic prom boy became an Anglophile rude boy, singer, songwriter and author with an anti-racist compass and a penchant for ironed shirts.

Prominent guests at Wortklub-Dortmund

Andrea Petkovic, Sebastian Krumbiegel and Luisa Neubauer are just three of the names on the guest list for this year's Wortklub program.

On a total of five evenings at domicil this year, there will once again be the special mix of literature, live music and entertainment that Wortklub has stood for since 2019. "This year's special feature is certainly the two evenings entitled "Theme: Democracy", which will focus on what's happening when hatred, hate speech and right-wing extremism increasingly shape social interaction," says Thomas Koch, initiator and host of the series. With the support of Signal Iduna, he was able to secure Sebastian Krumbiegel, Luisa Neubauer, Jürgen Wiebicke and Thomas Laschyk for these two evenings in December.

Together with domicil, Koch has managed to turn the Wortklub into an institution that now attracts attention far beyond Dortmund. The traditional jazz club in Hansastrasse now regularly hosts guests whose publications and comments are a topic of conversation throughout Germany. In addition to those already mentioned, this year's guests include the former world-class tennis player Andrea Petkovic, the journalist and author Nele Pollatschek, the comedian and author Fatih Cevikkollu and the Munich novelist Dana von Suffrin. You can also look forward to the opening evening on October 3, which is something of a "buddy evening" for Koch, when Fritz Eckenga presents his new volume of poetry, illustrated by Peter Menne. He will be joined by Günter Rückert, a man who - like Eckenga - has shaped Dortmund's cultural life for decades.

With the kind support of Signal Iduna