Judith Hermann becomes Brothers Grimm Poetry Professor in 2025

Grimm Poetry Professor 2025: Judith Hermann

German writer Judith Hermann (*1970) has been one of the most important voices in contemporary German-language literature since her prose debut, the short story collection Sommerhaus später (1998). She is considered a masterful storyteller of short prose forms. With Nichts als Gespenster (2003), Alice (2009) and Lettipark (2016), she has since published a total of four volumes of short stories. She has also proven herself as a novelist with Aller Liebe Anfang (2014) and Daheim (2021).

Hermann's fictional texts are characterized by a special, sensual narrative style, a particular 'sound'. They are characterized by poetic descriptions of everyday life as well as a focus on essential themes. In a manner typical of her time and at the same time with timeless validity, Judith Hermann thematizes relationship constellations, the coexistence of people and family constellations as well as existential experiences with illness, dying and death in her prose texts, always focusing on her characters at different ages and stages of life.

Hermann's stories have also been adapted for film - including THOMPSON MUSIK (D 2004; dir.: Jakob Ziemnicki) and NICHTS ALS GESPENSTER (D 2007; dir.: Martin Gypkens). She has also received numerous prizes and awards for her prose texts, including the Kleist Prize, the Bremen Literature Prize, the LiteraturTour Nord Prize and the Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize. She gave the Frankfurt Poetry Lectures in winter semester 2021/22. The equally poetological and personal text on these lectures is available under the title Wir hätten uns alles gesagt (2023).

Save the Date:
The GPP events with Judith Hermann are expected to take place on the following dates
Wed, June 25, 2025, 6-8pm, Campus Center | public poetry lecture
Thu, June 26, 2024, (pre-)noon | poetry seminar (for Kassel students only)
Thu, June 26, 2024, 6-8pm | public reading

You can find more information here.

With the Brothers Grimm Poetics Professorship, the Institute of German Studies at the University of Kassel honors important literary, theater, film and cultural figures every year. In public events for students and interested members of the public, the poetry professors reflect on artistic processes and their own texts, films, theater productions, etc.

The series of events will be accompanied by experimental media-aesthetic films and a series of publications published by Königshausen & Neumann.

In reference to the work of the Brothers Grimm, who lived and worked in Kassel, the guest professorship is also dedicated to those who experiment with media boundaries between the arts of literature, theater, visual arts and film.