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6:30 PM

Navid Kermani in conversation with Andrea Bajani

Discussion|A conversation on what it means to be a writer in a polarized world and how to build bridges in fractured societies and foster solidarity

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Navid Kermani Houston Veranstaltung © StudioPandan

Navid Kermani in the USA © StudioPandan

"Among the most thoughtful intellectual voices in German today."
New York Review of Books

"Navid Kermani shows us what it means to be a critical intellectual today."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Navid Kermani, one of Germany’s most acclaimed writers and “among the most thoughtful intellectual voices in German today,” according to the New York Review of Books, recently visited some of the world’s major conflict zones, not as a political analyst, but as a literary observer. Together with Italian write and Rice University faculty member Andrea Bajani, Kermani will discuss: What does it mean to be a writer in a polarized world marked by war, displacement, and political division? How is the concept of “the West” changing? How might literature, poetry, and religion serve as bridges in fractured societies and foster solidarity? 

This event is part of a series by the Goethe-Institut in North America in cooperation with the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles. Our partner in Houston is the Humanities Research Center (HRC) at Rice University.

About the speakers

Navid Kermani

Navid Kermani is an independent German writer living in Cologne. He studied Middle Eastern Studies, Philosophy, and Theater in Cologne, Cairo, and Bonn, where he received the post-doctoral degree (“Habilitation”). For his literary and academic work, he was awarded numerous prizes, including the Hannah-Arendt-Prize, the Kleist-Prize, the Joseph-Breitbach-Preis, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Hölderlin-Prize and the Thomas Mann-Prize.His literary books are published by Carl Hanser Verlag (German) and Seagull Books (English), his academic and non-fictional works by C. H. Beck (German) and Polity Press (English).
 

Andrea Bajani

Andrea Bajani is one of the most recognized and award-winning novelists of contemporary Italian and European literature. After his debut with Cordiali saluti (Einaudi, 2005), it was Se consideri le colpe (Einaudi, 2007, If you Kept a Record of Sins, Archipelago, 2021) which brought him a great deal of attention. In just a few months, the book won the Super Mondello Prize, the Brancati Prize, the Recanati Prize and the Lo Straniero Prize. With his novel Ogni promessa (Einaudi, 2010; published in English as Every Promise by MacLehose Press), he won the oldest Italian literary award, the Bagutta Prize.
His latest novel, The Anniversary (Feltrinelli, 2025), won the 2025 Strega Prize, Italy's most prestigious literary award and one of Europe's major literary prizes. It is currently being translated into over twenty-five languages. The Other Press will publish the American edition of The Anniversary in 2026.
He is also an author of journalistic essays and regularly contributes to the daily newspapers la Repubblica and il manifesto, and to the literary supplement of la Stampa, TTL. 
Andrea Bajani is Professor in the Practice and International Writer-in-Residence in the Department of English and Creative Writing at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

In collaboration with the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles, a transatlantic space for debate in the former exile home of German Nobel-laureate Thomas Mann in Pacific Palisades. The house organizes programs and events in L.A. and beyond, where innovators, scholars and artists from Germany and the U.S. address pressing issues related to democracy, society, arts and culture. Learn more at www.vatmh.org and follow them on social media @thomasmannhouse!