Just what is Europe?
It was to address this is the fabulously grand question that Graz, designated Cultural Capital of Europe 2003, called resolutely on the world of literature.


Migration within Europe and immigration from outside Europe are diversifying the faces of its residents. The participants in this project were 13 authors who have left their homelands and settled in Europe to conduct their writing activities. For presentation in Graz, these authors wrote in the essay form against the background of Europe on the perspective that grows out of the moderate distance from "Europe" arising from their choice in residence.

Yoko TAWADA, a Japanese writer residing in Germany, was one of the 13 participants. Some 80 people attended the Graz reading, which was held in the evening. Sometimes drawing laughter, Ms TAWADA charmed her audience with a text that was delicate yet powerful. The glimpses of the Europe drawn in these 13 different essays provide their readers with hints on how to approach it themselves.


Reading dates: 13-14 June 2003
Venue: Literaturhaus


Participants:Yoko TAWADA, Alfred KOLLERITSCH, Ilma RAKUSA, John WRAY, Eric-Emmanuel SCHMITT, Emine Sevgi OZDAMAR, Ismail KADARE, Claudio MAGRIS, Belen GOPEGUI, Herta MULLER, Maria RYBAKOVA, Joseph ZODERER, Urs WIDMER


All 13 contributions are collected in the volume "Es liegt was in der Luft. Die Himmel Europas" from Sroschl-Verlag of Graz and Vienna.

Yoko TAWADA

Born Tokyo, Japan, 1960. After graduating from the Waseda University School of Literature, Department of Russian Literature in 1982, joined a firm in Hamburg, Germany handling exports of German-language publications. Began publishing poetry collections and novellas in Japanese and German in 1987. Acquired doctorate in German literature from Zurich University in 2000. Composed with distinctive sensibility, her stories and style have won her esteem in Japan, with the Gunzo Prize for New Writers in 1991 for "Missing Heels", the Akutagawa Prize in 1993 for "The Bridegroom Was a Dog", the Bunkamura Deux Magots Prize in 2002 for "Spherical Time" and the Tanizaki Prize in 2003 for "Suspect on the Night Train". Ms TAWADA participates energetically in literary lectures and readings in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and pursues literary activities in the German language.www.tawada.com