Children´s and Young Adult Program of the Berlin International Literature Festival

International Children and Young Adult Literature is a section of the Berlin International Literature Festival (also referred to as ilb) founded in 2001 by engineer and culture manager Ulrich Schreiber. This Berlin-based festival is run annually at the beginning and middle of September under the trusteeship of the Peter-Weiss-Foundation for Art and Politics.

This section is internationally renowned as one of the biggest event of its kind for Children and Young Adult literature. It counts many critically acclaimed authors and illustrators of both picture-, children- and young adult books, as well as comics amongst its guests, including Kitty Crowther, Manuele Fior, Joke van Leeuwen, John Green, Scott McCloud, FRIDA Nilsson, Maria Parr, Peter Pohl, Shaun Tan and Janne Teller. The main location of the program’s readings and workshops is the Haus der Berliner Festspiele in the district of Berlin Charlottenburg. However, several events also take place in different theatres, museums, cultural centres, libraries and schools in Berlin.

Each year, more than 10.000 visitors attend the readings and workshops of the Children and Young Adult section alone. According to the festival, the aim of this section lies in identifying "locations all over the world in which extraordinary Children and Young Adult literature is currently being written" ("Standortbestimmung der gegenwärtigen internationalen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur").

The 14th Children and Young Adult section of the ilb will take place from September 10 and 21, 2014.

General information

Artistic accomplishments

Since its foundation the Children and Young Adult section of the ilb has been directed by its own artistic management: 2001 by Stefanie Geiger, 2002 until 2008 by Miriam Möllers, 2009 until 2010 by Katrin Hesse and since April 2011 by Christoph Peter. Furthermore, the artistic management is advised by an international board of trustees consisting of experts on Children and Young Adult literature.

Guests and curatorial focus

Each year the ilb invites around twenty mostly international authors and illustrators of Children and Young Adult literature to participate in the festival for the duration of several days. In particular authors from continents and regions that are relatively unknown on the German Children and Young Adult literature market are regularly invited. For instance, in the past years several authors and illustrators from Asia (i.e. Farideh Chalatbarie, Chen Chih-Yuan, Chen Jiang Hong, Enzo), Eastern Europe (i.e. Gabriela Chichowska, Iwona Chmielewska, Iva Procházková), Africa (i.e. Sindiwe Magoda, Tendai Huchu) and South America (i.e. Inés Garland) have been visiting the festival.

If the text has not yet been translated into German, the festival claims to cover all the expenses of translation. The selection of guests has led the Children and Young Adult program of the ilb to be renowned as one of the most international series of events for this type of literature. This has led many critically acclaimed authors and illustrators of Children and Young Adult literature to visit the festival in the past few years. Naturally, however, some German authors also participated, including Peter Härtling, Finn-Ole Heinrich, Nils Mohl, Salah Naoura, Mirjam Pressler and Axel Scheffler.

In regards to content, the Children and Young Adult program describes itself as focussing on aesthetically exceptional Children and Young Adult literature. As a result of this outset, politically charged works are also brought into the public’s focus. For instance, in 2011 the Iranian artists Amir and Khali introduced their work Zarah’s Paradise through the means of a skype conference at a reading of the festival, as the book critically engages with the political change in Iran, which resulted in its authors being unable to travel to Berlin themselves. Also Edward van de Vedel’s novel “De Gelukvinder” was presented, which concerns itself with the situation of refugees in the Netherlands.

The spectrum of the works introduced reaches from picture books via children's books to books for young adults. It also creates a forum for comics (i.e. by Shaun Tan, Amir and Khalil, Golo and Dibou) and lyric for children (i.e. by Julia Donaldson, Edward van de Vedel, Gerald Jatzek, Robert Paul Weston). Thereby, the Children and Young Adult program includes books that are not necessarily recent releases but those that have thus far not been translated into German and are consequently next to unknown there.

Event locations

The Haus der Berliner Festspiele is the main location for this section of the ilb and includes four stages: the main stage (999 seats), the side stage (230 seats), the rehearsal stage (99 seats) and the back stage (99 seats). Additionally, several events regularly take place in cultural centres (for instance die gelbe Villa, Gartenarbeitsschule Ilse Demme, Jugendkulturzentrum Pumpe, Schwarzkopf-Stiftung, Weinmeisterhaus, Verlagshaus Jacoby & Stuart), museums (Anne-Frank-Zentrum, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Fliegendes Theater, Gemäldegalerie, Museum Europäischer Kulturen, Pergamonmuseum) and theatres (Deutsches Theater, Grips-Theater, Neuköllner Oper, Schaubude, Theater an der Parkaue).

Event formats

The event formats of the Children and Young Adult program include readings and workshops that are mainly centred on newly released Children and Young Adult books of international authors and illustrators. Readings include a conversation between the author, the host and the audience, accompanied by an actor reading out a passage of the book for about 20 to 30 minutes. The distinctive feature thereby lies in many readings by English -, French- or Spanish-speaking authors taking place entirely in the original language, including the discussion with the audience. During workshops, a class usually creatively engages with the book of an invited author or illustrator for several days while cooperating with a museum, theatre or cultural centre in Berlin, after which they are able to present the results of their work directly to the guest. Often those authors and illustrators will even lead the workshops themselves.

Certain event formats of the Children and Young Adult program repeat annually. Since 2002 (only interrupted by his time as the French minister of integration) Azouz Begag has been a regular at the festival, introducing his Children and Young Adult books. Since 2003 the free-of-charge Familienfest International (transl.: Festival for families) has been taken place in the gelben Villa and since 2004 the Literarische Nachtsalon (transl.: literary night saloon) has been organized each year in the Weinmeisterhaus. Since 2009 a retrospective has been reoccurring, which aims to remind its audience of the works of deceased authors of Children and Youth literature and since 2010 the U20 Poetry Slam für Berliner Schüler (transl.: U20 Poetry Slam for students in Berlin) has regularly been taking place in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.

Event times and audience abstract

The program of the Children's and Young Adult section of the festival mainly takes place during the mornings and early afternoons on work days and is directed at primary, middle and high school students who visit the events together with their entire class. Groups of kindergarten students and expert visitors also attend many of the events. The main part of the audience consists of students from Berlin and Potsdam, whereby a total of more than 10,000 students have been annually visiting the Children and Young Adult section of the ilb.

Teaching materials

Through cooperation with a seminar group of the institution for German and Dutch Philology at the Free University of Berlin exclusive teaching materials for several of the books and illustrations presented at the festival were created. These teaching materials were provided free-of-charge to the students attending the festival.

Cooperation partners

Thanks to a cooperation with the book shop Le Matou since 2001, all of the books presented at the festival can be purchased at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele during the two festival weeks. A special feature of this book sale consists of all books also being offered for sale in their original language of publication.

In 2012 the festival cooperated with the following organisations: Berliner Literatur Initiative, Institut für Deutsche und Niederländische Philologie der Freien Universität Berlin, JugendKulturService, Le Matou - Internationale Kinder- und Versandbuchhandlung, Kreuzberger Kinderstiftung, Treffen junger Autoren.

Similar to previous years Škoda has functioned as the main financial support of the Children and Youth program. However, it was also financed by several other institutions, such as the program ViVaVostock which is part of the Robert Bosch foundation.

History

2011

For the Children and Young Adult program of the 11th Berlin International Literature Festival, taking place from September 7 to 17, 2011, the following authors and illustrators were guests of the section: Amir (Iran / USA), Azouz Begag (France), Maite Carranza (Spain), Chih-Yuan Chen (Taiwan), Chirikure Chirikure (Simbabwe), DBC Pierre (Australia), Khalil (Iran / USA), Kitty Crowther (Belgium), Julia Donaldson (United Kingdom), Morris Gleitzman (Australia), Peter Härtling (Germany), Finn-Ole Heinrich (Germany), Tahar Ben Jelloun (Morocco / France), Manos Kontoleon (Greece), Gerður Kristný (Iceland), Agnès de Lestrade (France), Frida Nilsson (Sweden), François Place (France), Axel Scheffler (Germany / United Kingdom), Jenny Valentine (United Kingdom), Edward van de Vendel (The Netherlands), Suse Weisse (Germany), and Robert Williams (United Kingdom).

2012

For the Children and Young Adult program of the 12th Berlin International Literature Festival, taking place from September 4 to 16, 2012, the following authors and illustrators were guests of the section: Azouz Begag (France), Farideh Chalatbarie (Iran), Chen Jiang Hong (China / France), Mariana Chiesa Mateos (Argentina / Italy), Iwona Chmielewska (Poland), Gabriela Cichowska (Poland), Dibou (France / Egypt), Enzo (Taiwan), Kate De Goldi (New Zealand), Golo (France / Egypt), John Green (USA), Finn-Ole Heinrich (Germany), Tendai Huchu (Simbabwe / Scotland), Adam Jaromir (Poland / Germany), Gerald Jatzek (Austria), Jan de Leeuw (Belgium), Nils Mohl (Germany), Salah Naoura (Germany), Uri Orlev (Poland / Israel), Maria Papayanni (Greece), Maria Parr (Norway), Peter Pohl (Sweden), Iva Procházková (Czech Republic), Janne Teller (Denmark / USA), Rachel Ward (United Kingdom), Robert Paul Weston (United Kingdom), and Floortje Zwigtman (The Netherlands).

2013

For the Children and Young Adult program of the 13th Berlin International Literature Festival, taking place from September 4 to 15, 2013, the following authors and illustrators were guests of the section: Milena Baisch (Germany), Gabi Beltran (Spain), John Boyne (Ireland), Chen Jiang Hong (China / France), Manuele Fior (Italy / France), Cornelia Funke (Germany / USA), Inés Garland (Argentina), Yves Grevet (France), Finn-Ole Heinrich (Germany), Franz Hohler (Switzerland), Joke van Leeuwen (The Netherlands), Nicolas Mahler (Austria), Geert Mak (The Netherlands), Raquel J. Palacio (USA), Mirjam Pressler (Germany), Andreas Schulze (Germany), Ruta Sepetys (USA), Seyyed Ali Shodjaie (Iran), Bhajju Shyam (India), Janne Teller (Denmark / USA), Brecht Vandenbroucke (Belgium), and Józef Wilkoń (Poland). Its annual retrospective focused on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s novel The Little Prince.

2014

For the Children and Young Adult program of the 14th Berlin International Literature Festival, taking place from September 10 to 21, 2014, no authors and illustrators were announced as guests so far.

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