Centre of Words

Literature & Translation Stage

The new Centre of Words is the central meeting point for literature and translation with its own stage and networking area for encounters and exchanges.

The top-class programme of the Centre of Words 2024 brought German-speaking and international guests from theory and practice on stage and into conversation. Virulent topics from literature, translation and cultural policy were discussed. The thematic spectrum ranged from genre-generative AI and its far-reaching consequences to the effects of Italian politics on the cultural sector, writing in exile, the current situation of cultural workers in Ukraine and positions of new Jewish narratives to the challenges of translating the works of James Baldwin, Paul Celan, James Joyce and Roberto Saviano. Poetics of the present were presented and questions were asked about writing of the future. It was about translators as scouts, the comic book market, East Asian science fiction, trends in current Italian literature and, again and again, the latest German-language prose and poetry in all its diversity.

Zentrum Wort. Bühne für Literatur & Übersetzung. Frankfurter Buchmesse 2024. 16 bis 20. Oktober. Halle 4.1 F21.

The Centre of Words is jointly supported by the German Translators’ Fund and the German Literature Fund, with additional support provided by the Federal Government’s Commissioner for Culture and the Media and Kunststiftung NRW, in cooperation with Frankfurter Buchmesse.

Impressions of the Centre of Words:

These were the events at the Centre of Words:

Frankfurter Buchmesse's fellowship and grant programmes

The application deadline has expired

Salon Francfort - A gathering of German and French fiction publishers in Frankfurt am Main

This is a publishers' meeting for selected German and French fiction publishers which will take place at the Haus des Buches in Frankfurt.

The compact programme will focus on the development of a Franco-German book industry network, as well as on the promotion of literature and translation.

The Goldschmidt Programme

The Georges Arthur Goldschmidt Programme is aimed at young literary translators from Switzerland, France, Germany and Austria. Each year, it enables five German speaking and five French speaking translators to meet with publishers from both countries and to work on translation projects under the guidance of experienced translators. The next Goldschmidt programme edition will take place from 5 February to 29 March 2025.