Sprecher*innen

• Dr. Kim Lan Thai

  Thai Kim Lan, born 1942 in Hue City, Vietnam, earned a Bachelor of Philosophy at the Faculty of Literature, Hue University, and received a DAAD scholarship in 1965. She pursued post‑graduate studies in philosophy at Ludwig‑Maximilian University, Munich, and received a Ph.D in philosophy in 1976 with a doctoral thesis on I. Kant at the Department of Philosophy. From 1978 to 2007, she was a lecturer in comparative philosophy of East (Buddhism) – West (epistemology) at Ludwig‑Maximilian University, Munich. She is the founder and president of the German‑Asian Exchange Center in Munich and has been a visiting lecturer at the Vietnam Buddhist University in Ho Chi Minh City and Hue. Since 2021, she has been the founder and director of Lan Vien Co Tich, the Huong River Antique Pottery Museum and Intercultural Meeting Center in Hue.

• Sasha Marianna Salzmann

  Sasha Marianna Salzmann was born in Volgograd, Russia, and at the age of ten migrated to Germany with their family, where they have become one of the most relevant voices on the theatre and literary scene. They studied Theatre and Literature at the University of Hildesheim and later specialized in playwriting at the University of the Arts in Berlin. Their theatrical work, acclaimed internationally, stands out for its unique treatment of universal topics such as memory, identity or the migratory experience. It has been translated into more than twenty languages and awarded with Theatre Prize of the Academy of Arts 2020 and the Kleist-Preis literary prize in 2024. Both of their novels Beside Myself (2017) and Glorious people (2021) were nominated for the best German Book Prize and received the Literaturhäuser Prize and Hermann-Hesse-Literaturpreis in 2022. Sasha Salzmann also collaborates with various German media, curates festivals and has been a resident at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin.

• Miku Sophie Kühmel

  Miku Sophie Kühmel was born in Gotha, Germany in 1992. They studied briefly in New York and longer in Berlin, where they now live and work. After publications in anthologies and magazines, their debut novel "Kintsugi" was published in 2019, for which Miku was awarded the Jürgen Ponto Foundation Literature Prize 2019 and the "aspekte" Literature Prize 2019. They have received scholarships from the Alfred Döblin House of the Academy of Arts, among others. In 2022, their second novel "Triskele" was published, with which Miku was nominated for the Clemens Brentano Prize 2023. After publishing their first anthology „Brüste“ with Linus Giese, working in several residencies such as Reykjavík (with the Goethe Institute of Denmark) or Vienna and diving into the world of theatre with the Deutsches Theater atelier project „Fellwechsel“, Miku published their latest novel „Hannah“ in 2025. It was particularly well received in the press, or as FAZ put it: „Kühmel gives Hannah Höch back one half of her life."

• Rebecca Watson

  Rebecca Watson (she/her) is a novelist. Her debut novel little scratch (2021) was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize and was adapted into a play in London. Her second novel I Will Crash was published in 2024 to critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Watson's non-fiction has been published widely, including in the Guardian, Granta and British Vogue. In 2022, she presented a documentary for Radio 4 — where her short stories have also aired. She is a commissioning editor and columnist for FT Weekend and lives in London. The Vietnamese edition of little scratch (XƯỚC XÁT) is published by Coral Books.

• Peter Simon Altmann

  Peter Simon Altmann is an Austrian author. Born in Salzburg Austria 1968, studied theology and philosophy. Collaboration in various theater productions in Salzburg and Vienna. Working as a writer since 1999. Several working stays in Japan, Korea and China, supported by the Austrian embassies in Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing and others. Altmann writes novels, short stories, poems and essays and is a member of PEN-International Austria.

• Thibault Clemenceau

  Thibault Clemenceau is a traveler and a writer born in 1989 in France. He moved to Vietnam in 2014. His love for the outdoors and cycling naturally led him to undertake long-distance journeys. In 2019, he embarked with his wife, Trân Nguyên Khanh Nguyên, on a 16,000 km honeymoon from France to Vietnam crossing some countries such as Iran, India and Myanmar.
  His book written about this adventure, Un Duo Vers l’Inconnu, received the René Caillé Award for the best adventure book