Between a Seminar and a Festival Evening
From November 5 to 8, 2026, Siegen will once again be transformed into a stage for literature in all its forms. This marks the eighth edition of the European literature festival “vielSeitig,” which has been organized for the past 16 years by the Kultur!Büro. of the Siegen-Wittgenstein district in collaboration with the University of Siegen. With 20 events at nine venues, the festival remains true to its mission of bringing literature out of the library reading room and the cozy corner of the living room and into the city. Whether at the Kulturhaus Lÿz, in cafés, bars, libraries, or at unusual venues—encounters between authors, artists, and a curious audience take place everywhere.
This year’s program ranges from Young and New Adult to contemporary history and true crime: It includes prominent podcast formats such as “Zwei Seiten” with Mona Ameziane and Christine Westermann, children’s and young adult literature, documentary material on the history of the GDR and Nazism, crime fiction from Anne Holt to Ursula Poznanski, as well as musical-literary productions. Within this broad spectrum, students from the University of Siegen once again have a prominent place this year—with three events that they have largely developed themselves.
Word for Word – The Podcast About Reading
The festival kicks off on Thursday, November 5, at 6 p.m. at Café CuCú with“Wort über Wort – The Podcast About Reading,” which also marks the opening of this year’s vielSeitig Festival.
“Wort über Wort” is a literary podcast from Radius 92.1, Siegen’s campus radio station, dedicated entirely to reading. A new episode is released regularly on the last Friday of every month, featuring book presentations and discussions. For vielSeitig, the show is now leaving the radio studio for the first time and becoming a live podcast in front of an audience. The episode takes listeners on a journey across Europe: Michelle Harwart, Lana Hasenbusch, Max Mirus, and Moritz Richter each present a book from a different direction. Representing the south is Marianna Sirca by the Italian Nobel laureate Grazia Deledda, from the north, Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s *Celestial Bodies at the Edge of the World*; from the east, *Song of the Bats * by the Polish Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk; and from the west, Gaston Leroux’s *The Phantom of the Opera*.
Love 'n' Story
On Saturday, November 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the Apollo Theater studio,*Love 'n' Story* will focus on two of today’s most widely read literary genres: New Adult and Romance. The event will feature two authors, Inka Lindberg and Christina Kaspar, whose novels have reached a large readership within this literary sphere. Inka Lindberg will present *Ever Since She Kissed Me *, and Christina Kaspar will present *Silver Grove. Break Me Twice*. The readings will be followed by a discussion about the creation of the novels, the development of their characters, and the influence of social media on writing, publishing, and reading literature. The conversation will also touch on BookTok and the so-called “romance bubble.” Questions from the audience are expressly encouraged. Moritz Richter from Radius 92.1, Siegen’s campus radio station, will moderate the event.
Echoes from the Future
The event concludes on Sunday, November 8, at 4 p.m. at the Dunkelcafé Siegen with the poetry-concert performance *Echoes from the Future* by Rike Scheffler. Echoes from the Future is a vibrant concert ritual from a possible future: voices of humans, birds, foxes, volcanoes, glaciers, and AI weave together into choirs and echoes of cross-species community. Through her performance, Rike Scheffler creates poetic and sonic visions—musical rituals of transition—in which sensual verses and haunting sounds of possible futures resonate as echoes in the present. The poems in the performance are drawn from her published poetry collection *Lava. Rituale *. On the occasion of the vielSeitig Festival, Rike Scheffler is presenting *Echoes from the Future* in collaboration with sound engineer Miche Moreno. Set in the unique setting of the Dunkelcafé, the work unfolds in the dim light: a space where attention shifts entirely to the voice and sound, and listening itself becomes a physical experience.
Admission for each of the three events is 5 euros.
Faculty members from the University of Siegen are also featured in the festival program: Dr. Natasza Stelmaszyk will host the KosmoPOLINNEN VI matinee with Simone Falk and Miriam Burdelski on Sunday, November 8, at 11 a.m. at the Pagnia coffee roastery. Under the title “A Journey to Poland and Back to the Past,” the two authors will take the audience on a literary journey to contemporary Poland and, at the same time, into the German-Polish past. Admission is 10 euros.
Prof. Dr. Daniel Stein is organizing two events focused on graphic novels. On Saturday, November 7, at 2 p.m. , Bianca Schaalburg will present her political comic *Emma and Amir* at the Student Services Center (F-S 002) . *In the Shadow of Terror*, which was named a finalist for the Berthold Leibinger Foundation’s Comic Book Award in 2025 (admission: 10 euros). As part of the festival’s follow-up events, the workshop discussion *Telling Stories of Women’s Lives* with Barbara Yelin will take place on Wednesday, November 11, at 4:15 p.m. in Lecture Hall Center C on the Unteres Schloss campus. Dr. Jana Mikota and Prof. Dr. Daniel Stein will speak with her about her latest book, *Die Giehse *. Admission is free.
(Text: Victoria Neuser)
