Olga Grjasnowa is this year's Heinrich Heine Guest Lecturer
2025-06-11 Lüneburg. From June 19 to 21, author Olga Grjasnowa will take over the Heinrich Heine Guest Lectureship at Leuphana University of Lüneburg. She caused a sensation in 2012 with her debut novel “Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt” (The Russian is one who loves birch trees). The book was awarded the Anna Seghers Prize, among other honors. Grjasnowa has also been a professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna since 2023. Her most recent novel, “Juli, August, September,” was published in 2024. In it, she tells the story of a modern Jewish family.
On June 19 at 7:00 p.m., Olga Grjasnowa will give a public lecture in Lecture Hall 4 at Leuphana. She will then talk to Deutschlandfunk presenter Andrea Gerk about her work, her poetics, and her latest novel. The novel deals with the question of what constitutes a Jewish family today. Pianist Sergej and his wife Lou live in Berlin with their daughter Rosa, who has never been to a synagogue. To find out what actually characterizes a modern Jewish family, Lou accepts an invitation to her aunt's 90th birthday party. The entire ex-Soviet clan from Israel gathers in a run-down resort on Gran Canaria, bound together only by mutual resentment. Lou systematically drinks away the petty malice and vague emptiness within herself and suddenly realizes that the answer to all her questions can be found in the scorching heat of Tel Aviv.
During the summer semester, students under the direction of Julian Osthues studied the work of Olga Grjasnowa. In a two-day workshop, they now have the opportunity to exchange ideas with the author. This meeting between students and author is an integral part of the program. The Heinrich Heine Guest Lectureship 2025 is sponsored by Sparda-Bank Hamburg, the district of Lüneburg, and the Lüneburg Landscape Association.
About the author
Olga Grjasnowa was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 1984. Her debut novel was adapted for the cinema by Pola Beck in 2022. Grjasnowa's works have been translated into 15 languages and adapted for radio and stage. Before becoming a professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, the author spent extended periods in Poland, Russia, Turkey, the USA, and Israel.
About the guest lectureship
The Heinrich Heine Guest Lectureship is a collaborative project between Literaturbüro Lüneburg and Leuphana University of Lüneburg. Each year, an author of renown in the literary world is invited to the Hanseatic city to give a public lecture and a compact seminar at the university. Accompanying the lecture, a seminar is offered in the summer semester in which the works of the guest lecturers are discussed. This gives Leuphana students direct access to contemporary literature and insights into the authors' writing. Since 2009, Uwe Timm, Juli Zeh, Ingo Schulze, Feridun Zaimoglu, Ursula Krechel, Jenny Erpenbeck, Saša Stanišić, Abbas Khider, Antje Rávic Strubel, Peter Stamm, Helene Hegemann, John von Düffel, Ulrike Draesner, Gregor Sander, Zsuzsa Bánk, and Raphaela Edelbauer have visited the university.
NOTE FOR EDITORS:
Upon request, we will gladly provide you with a photo of the author for publication free of charge.
Contact
Literaturbüro Lüneburg e.V., Kerstin Fischer
Phone
literaturbuero@stadt.lueneburg.de
Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Martin Gierczak
Phone
martin.gierczak@leuphana.de