Press Release | Leipzig, 02/23/2022

Leipzig, Here We Come!

…with the Blue Sofa and 45 authors

Despite the Leipzig Book Fair being cancelled - the Blue Sofa is coming to town! On Thursday, March 17, and Friday, March 18, 2022, the authors' forum jointly organised by Bertelsmann, ZDF, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, and 3sat will welcome a total of 45 authors from the U.K., Luxembourg, Austria, Portugal, and Germany to Leipzig's Kongresshalle am Zoo. All talks will take place with an audience (in compliance with strict hygiene rules) and will be simultaneously livestreamed on www.das-blaue-sofa.de.

“You can count on Bertelsmann, ZDF, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and 3sat’s Blue Sofa - even in pandemic times," explains Karin Schlautmann, Head of Corporate Communications at Bertelsmann. “Many authors are delighted at the opportunity to present their latest book to a broad audience in this way."

The Blue Sofa at the Leipzig Congress Hall

This year, 45 authors will travel to Leipzig to present their latest works on the Blue Sofa. Among them are Abdulrazak Gurnah, who won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, and Karl-Markus Gauß, who will accept the Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding on March 16. The talks will be moderated by 16 presenters from ZDF, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and 3sat on the two days.

Other authors who will be presenting their new novels are: Fatma Aydemir, Marica Bodrožić, Lucy Fricke, Nino Haratischwili, Guy Helminger, Judith Kuckart, Tete Loeper, Teresa Präauer, and Julia Schoch. The latest works of nonfiction by writers including Philipp Felsch, Christiane Hoffmann, Yasmine M’Barek, and Wolfgang Ullrich are on the program on the two days. Singer/songwriter and actor Rainald Grebe, comedian Michael Mittermeier, and drummer Florian Weber of the rock band Sportfreunde Stiller will present their recently published books to the audience, as will the well-known journalist and author Jan Weiler.

As in previous years, the three winners of the Leipzig Book Fair Literary Award (Fiction, Nonfiction, Translation) will be taking to the Blue Sofa immediately after the awards ceremony on March 17.

Blue Hour on Portugal

On Thursday, March 17, the “Blue Hour” – an hour on the Blue Sofa devoted to a particular topic – will focus on literature from the special guest country, Portugal. The guests at this event are the Portuguese authors Carla Bessa, Tatiana Salem Levy, Yara Nakahanda Monteiro, and José Luís Peixoto. On Friday, March 18, Andreas Brandhorst, Romy Fölck, and Thomas Ziebula will meet for the “Blue Hour of Crime Speed-Dating.”

Crime at the Regional Court

Since 1991, Bertelsmann and the “Kunst und Justiz im Landgericht Leipzig” (Art and Justice at the Leipzig Regional Court) project have set their own literary accent in the city with the successful KrimiClub series. On Thursday, March 17, Andreas Brandhorst (“Das Bitcoin-Komplott”), Ralf Langroth (“Ein Präsident verschwindet”), Frauke Scheunemann (“Der Tote im Netz”), and Thomas Ziebula (“Engel des Todes”) will convene in the large courtroom of the regional court for a “murderous evening” of talking to presenter Michael Kramers (ZDF) about their latest thrillers, and reading from them.

The Blue Sofa Online and in the Media

Livestream
at: www.das-blaue-sofa.de 

ZDF
20 Mar Long Night of the Blue Sofa (from 12:35 AM | 180 minutes)

Deutschlandfunk Kultur
20 Mar Long Night of the Blue Sofa(12:05 AM to 7:00 AM)

3sat
20. Mar The Blue Sofa. Highlights from the talks (11:05 AM | 90 minutes)

Mediatheken
All talks can be accessed in the media libraries (Mediatheken) of ZDF, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and 3sat

About Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann is a media, services and education company that operates in about 50 countries around the world. It includes the entertainment group RTL Group, the trade book publisher Penguin Random House, the music company BMG, the service provider Arvato, the Bertelsmann Printing Group, the Bertelsmann Education Group and Bertelsmann Investments, an international network of funds. The company has around 130,000 employees and generated revenues of €17.3 billion in the 2020 financial year. Bertelsmann stands for creativity and entrepreneurship. This combination promotes first-class media content and innovative service solutions that inspire customers around the world. Bertelsmann aspires to achieve climate neutrality by 2030.

About the Blue Sofa
The Blue Sofa is the authors’ forum jointly hosted by Bertelsmann, ZDF, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, and 3sat. In over two decades, it has become an institution at the book fairs in Frankfurt and Leipzig. Since the Leipzig Book Fair in 2000, more than 3,100 author talks have taken place on the Blue Sofa – on site and livestreamed or broadcast on TV and radio. In 2005, the Blue Sofa celebrated its premiere in Berlin, and in 2011, Frankfurt's Open Books reading festival opened with a Blue Sofa authors’ gala for the first time. Guests to date have included authors from across all genres with their latest books, including Nobel Prize laureates Svetlana Alexievich, Mikhail Gorbachev, Günter Grass, Herta Müller, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Orhan Pamuk, Joseph Stiglitz, Olga Tokarczuk, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Mo Yan.