"Into the open" with Selma Kay Matter - In conversation with Karl-Heinz Ott and Ivna Zic

Two great novel debuts for the finale of the "Ins Freie" series: Not far from there, "Wo der spitzeste Zahn der Karawanken in den Himmel hinauf fletscht" (Suhrkamp, 2024), a girl observes the world of her childhood under a truck, which she is supposed to leave today. Moving helpers come and go, as do memories of the Carinthian village and its forest without eyes, full of abysses. Julia Jost gives a vivid portrayal of growing up as a child stuck between the regulars' table and the confessional, the archaic mountain world and Nazi nostalgia.

Kay has a major crush - and falls seriously ill. Every crush is followed by a crash, heart palpitations by migraines, hickeys by aching limbs. While Kay struggles with Long Covid, only the longing for Aaron and his androgynous body brings relief. New forms of care, intimacy and queer resistance, questions of physical (in)integrity and self-determination are the vanishing points of Selma Kay Matter's "Muscles of Plastic" (Hanser Berlin, 2024).
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Photos: Julia Jost © Rafaela Pröll/Suhrkamp Verlag, Selma Kay Matter © Lee Everett Thieler

An event of the Literatursommer 2024 of the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, www.literatursommer.de, supported by INTA-Stiftung and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia

Date: 23.10.2024, 7 pm
Venue: Literaturhaus, Bertoldstraße 17
Admission: 11/7 euros

Reading and discussion
Literaturhaus