Nadja Küchenmeister: The Big Dipper — 40th Freiburg Literary Discussion: Reading and Discussion with Thomas Geiger

In *Under the Constellation “The Big Dipper”* (Schöffling & Co., 2025), Nadja Küchenmeister creates a space that blends Berlin, Cologne, and Lisbon just as it blends the past and the present. Her long poem is a journey through inner and outer landscapes, telling of new beginnings, upheaval, and memory, stretching and condensing time. The Wuhle Valley symbolizes growing up in East Berlin and saying goodbye to her parents. For the poet, Cologne is a transient place of work marked by constant welcome and farewell. Lisbon—as if the 1755 earthquake were still reverberating there to this day—is the setting for a love that falls apart.
Page by page, eight unrhymed triplets come together to form sweeping visual panoramas. A fixed structure full of movement, with the brightly shining constellation as a fixed point in the night sky. The poet speaks with Thomas Geiger about her collection, which was awarded the 2026 Peter Huchel Prize, about ghosts monologuing in the shower, the significance of the color yellow, and the art of standing still while walking.
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Photo: Dirk Skiba

Sponsors: Freiburg City Cultural Office, Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts, Sparkasse Freiburg-Nördlicher Breisgau, Guzzoni-Federer Foundation, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank
Cooperation partners: Theater in the Marienbad, jos fritz bookstore
Cultural partner: SWR Kultur

Date: November 5, 2026, 6:00 p.m.
Location: Literaturhaus Freiburg, Bertoldstraße 17
Admission: 11/7 euros / Combo ticket (includes reading with Lutz Seiler): 20/10 euros

Literary discussion
Literaturhaus