The current Samuel Fischer Guest Professor is Lina Meruane, one of the most prominent voices in contemporary Chilean literature. Her work comprises two volumes of stories, five novels, a play and several volumes of literary and scholarly essays. In 2011 she was awarded the Anna Seghers Prize and in 2017 was a DAAD Writer in Residence in Berlin where she wrote her most recent novel «Sistema nervioso» (soon forthcoming via Aki/Kampa in German) is about a family history, told through the clinical biographies of its members.

Priya Basil is a British-Indian writer. She grew up in Kenya, studied in the UK, and now lives in Berlin. Her novels have been nominated for numerous awards. She writes regularly for Lettre International and various daily newspapers. Priya Basil is a co-founder of Authors for Peace. Her latest book «In Us and Now: Becoming Feminist» (2021) explores the prismatic nature of feminism.

On Wednesday, July 13, the two authors talked about how increasing attention to female characters in their early fiction made them aware of gender troubles and about how, later on, becoming feminists influenced their non-fiction writing. The two authors will read short excerpts from their recent work and reflect on the intricate connection established between contemporary writing and the rise of feminist practice around the world, exploring questions of resistance, activism and intersectional forms of solidarity. Conversation in English.

This reading was presented by the Samuel Fischer Guest Professorship for Literature in cooperation with the Literaturhaus Berlin and can be watched here on YouTube.