Literature scholarship from the city of Chemnitz
Literary scholarship 2026 for Judith Kuckart and Burkhard Peter
Writer and freelance director Judith Kuckart and photographer Burkhard Peter are this year's literary scholarship holders of the City of Chemnitz. Their tandem application won out over 52 other applications in the competition. The two will divide their stay from the beginning of April to the end of September equally, with Burkhard Peter starting on 1 April.
A total of 53 applications were received for the City of Chemnitz's third literature scholarship - more and more international than ever before. There were submissions from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Georgia, Italy and Estonia.
We were looking for a literary producer who would live in Chemnitz from April to September, engage with the city and region in a multifaceted way during this time, take part in the socio-political and cultural discourse and enrich it with their own contributions.
The scholarship holders
Judith Kuckart (born 1959) grew up on the edge of the Ruhr area. She now lives in Berlin. She completed her studies in literature and theatre studies with a master's degree on Else Lasker-Schüler. She attended the dance department at the Folkwang-Hochschule Essen and in 1984 founded the dance theatre Skoronel, an independent professional group with which she realised 17 productions up to 1998. She has been working as a writer and freelance director since 1999. Her new novel "Die Welt zwischen den Nachrichten" was published by DuMont in August 2024.
Burkhard Peter (born 1961) studied photography and film design at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts. He lives as a freelance photographer in Berlin. He works throughout Germany in the field of portrait and reportage photography as well as documentation in the editorial field, for institutions, publishers, magazines, PR and advertising. Since 2015, his artistic work has focussed on the urban landscape as a living space, focusing on urban, small-town and provincial scenes.
focus.
Judith Kuckart and Burkhard Peter have already worked together on several joint projects. They have applied for the City of Chemnitz Literature Scholarship as a tandem in order to each contribute individually to a project and also to a joint project in the city of Chemnitz.
Background: Literature scholarship
The scholarship enables people to engage more intensively with the past and present of life in the city of Chemnitz and the region.
In line with the City of Chemnitz's cultural strategy "Giving Culture Space" and in continuation of the Capital of Culture motto C the Unseen, urban society and its surroundings are setting out together to increasingly localise themselves in Europe, to make the undiscovered visible, tangible and conceivable.
With the scholarship, a scriptor in residence is invited to participate and present parts of their current work, e.g. at readings at the start and end of the scholarship, in the cultural life of the city and at interactive readings in schools and educational institutions.
The City of Chemnitz Literature Scholarship was advertised for the first time in 2022 and for the second time in 2023. More than 40 applications from all over Germany, Austria and Switzerland were received in response to the two calls for applications.
As the first literature scholarship holder, Arna Aley enriched the cultural life of the city from October 2022 to March 2023. From April to September 2024, Stefan Hornbach was the second literary scholarship holder, reading in front of an audience and writing his second novel.
Review 2024
The second literature fellow, Stefan Hornbach, lived and worked in Chemnitz from the beginning of April to mid-October 2024.
moreReview 2023
Arna Aley was the first literature scholarship holder of the city of Chemnitz. She lived and worked here from October 2022 to March 2023 and took part in the social discourse with her contributions.
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