I love magazines. I love books. And I love essays. So a magazine in which essays are written about books is as good as it gets as far as I’m concerned. The publication I am referring to is The European Review of Books, released three times a year as a book-length, multilingual issue. The journal is celebrating the launch of its third issue this Friday (21.04.2023) at Acud Galerie, with readings by the magazine’s authors, drinks, lively talks and a collaboration with Mitte bookshop Do You Read Me. Kicking off at 20h (doors from 19h30) is a packed program of readings that includes the following: Adania Shibli on a life split between Ramallah and Berlin, Svetlana Lavochkina on poetic profanity in Surzhyk (a language blending Ukrainian and Russian), Alexander Wells on the joys of Denglish, Yu Müller on Chinese palindromes, Nienke Groskamp on psychic detectives, Sander Pleij on German-Jewish philosopher Salomo Friedlaender, Peter Frederick Matthews on “catastrophic exactitude”, Wiegertje Postma on the art of vomiting words, Christy Wampole on the art of neurosis and – last but not least – George Blaustein on zero-euro notes. That may or may not be an exhaustive list, but one thing’s for sure: lovers of smart thoughts, well-used words and what I would call contradictory complexity will have a good night. The journal’s aim is to build “avenues to the arcane, the profane, the grand”, something they are succeeding at in a way that few other publications do – and not just because they’re the only ones doing it…
Text: Hilka Dirks / Credit: The European Review of Books & Acud Macht Neu
Acud Galerie at Acud, Veteranenstr.2, 10119 Berlin–Mitte; map
The European Review of Books Issue #3 Launch, 21.04.2023 20h (doors 19h30)
@acudgalerie
@european_review
