Meet the author

Hannah, the main character of Sulaiman Addonia’s new novel The Seers, possesses a voice that holds you spellbound from the first sentence of the book to the last. By the end of this 160-page single paragraph, you might feel like a boxer after winning a fight in a ring: broken but euphoric. Peter Verhelst will tell us why the book is ‘world-class’ and Melissa Giardina will talk to the author. Actress Aminata Demba will read from it.

Neem deel aan een van de leesclubs bij Replica of Passa Porta over de prachtige en internationaal opgemerkte roman van Jente Posthuma over afscheid, rouw, jaloezie en verbondenheid, en stel op woensdag 18 september je vragen live aan de auteur in Muntpunt.

Qu’ont à se dire la littérature et l’enfance ? Dans leurs nouveaux romans, le Québécois Kev Lambert et la Française Emmanuelle Bayamack-Tam/Rebecca Lighieri explorent à leurs façons aiguës l’imaginaire enfantin et adolescent. Loin des clichés du genre.

As part of the Fame Festival 2024, a performing arts festival that highlights the artistic work of women and gender minorities, we welcome Alana S. Portero, who, with Bad Habit, has delivered a noted and poignant debut.

What has become of the great American novel? Find out with Justin Torres, whose second novel, Blackouts, won one of literary America’s most prestigious prizes, the National Book Award.

The story of Eilis Lacey, the main character in Colm Tóibín’ bestselling novel Brooklyn, ended with her last-minute decision to turn her back on Ireland again and return to New York. How her story unfolded there is something we can now read about in the sequel Long Island. The author will talk about it in Brussels with Annelies Beck.

The birth of his son Silvestre inspired Chilean writer Alejandro Zambra to write the heartfelt and moving Literatura Infantil about fatherhood. He will be interviewed by Pepijn Lanen, also known as Faberyayo, a writer, rapper, and father of four. He is the author of Vad3r, and host of the podcast V4der where he tries to figure out parenthood through discussion with other parents.

A l’heure de commémorer le génocide des Tutsi, les écrivains Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse et Lukas Bärfuss reviennent sur les événements, et racontent comment ils sont parvenus, elle et lui, à en tisser un récit.

Nobody writes stories like Kathrin Röggla. Strange, menacing, disruptive. She is one of the most important and most acclaimed German-language writers. With Nachtprogramma, her work is now also available in Dutch. Together with Prof. Inge Arteel, Kathrin Röggla will join us for a discussion with her translators and read from her short-story collection.

I’m A Fan, British writer and director Sheena Patel’s debut novel about obsession, social media and power relations, put her on the map as one of the most exciting new voices in British literature. She will be interviewed by Sudanese-Australian writer Yassmin Abdel-Magied, who will be working on her new novel as writer in residence at Passa Porta in Brussels.

What’s left of gay bars today? In Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, Asian-American author Jeremy Atherton Lin traces the history of homosexual identity over the last century and a half. A book that has already achieved cult status, a mix of the erotic and the political, acclaimed by the likes of Maggie Nelson and Colm Toibin.

A conversation with one of China’s most influential young writers. During her two-week writing residency at Passa Porta in Brussels, Zhang Yueran (b. 1982) will talk to Catherine Vuylsteke about her life and work.

Een vader, een tienjarige zoon, een bunker, geheime boodschappen. Het nieuwe boek van Brecht Evens ademt mysterie. De auteur komt over uit Parijs om klaarheid te scheppen in een gesprek met Phara de Aguirre, of zal ook hij in raadsels spreken?

Abdulrazak Gurnah, one of the greatest living African writers and a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, is coming to Brussels. The presence of such a master of the contemporary novel will be one of the highlights of the celebrations surrounding the 20th anniversary of Passa Porta.

La philosophe féministe Camille Froidevaux-Metterie ouvre sa bibliothèque et convoque les écrivaines qui, de Sylvia Plath à Nastassja Martin, l’aident à penser son sujet de prédilection : le(s) corps des femmes. Elle sera accompagnée de la comédienne Annette Gatta.

What if, at the end of your life, a clinic offered you the chance to relive the golden years of your life? This appealing but perhaps dangerous idea is at the heart of Time Shelter, the latest novel by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov, winner of the 2023 International Booker Prize. Come and meet this ‘Proust coming from the East’ for an exceptional evening at Passa Porta.

What can the black female body be? Pulitzer Prize winner Margo Jefferson asks herself this question in Constructing a Nervous System, an intimate and intelligent account that follows up her acclaimed Negroland.

Versatile British author Geoff Dyer will be our guest for an exclusive conversation about his new book, The Last Days of Roger Federer and Other Endings. With interlocutor Melissa Giardina, he will explore the many ways glorious careers come to an end. A summer evening about goodbyes with one of the UK’s sharpest and funniest writers.

L’autrice Léonora Miano sera de passage à Bruxelles le temps d’une soirée consacrée à son œuvre puissante. L'autrice de Rouge impératrice vient de faire paraître Stardust, son tout premier roman écrit il y a plus de 20 ans, et son texte le plus intime à ce jour. Où écrire revient à sauver sa peau.

Een van de veelzijdigste schrijvers in ons taalgebied stelt zijn nieuwe roman voor en gaat daarbij in gesprek met zijn belezen vakgenoot. Na een essaybundel, een aflevering in de koldereske J. Kessels-reeks en een literair portret van zijn vader belandt de schrijfcarrousel van Thomése eindelijk nog eens bij een roman.

British author Bernardine Evaristo will be our guest in Brussels for an evening programme centred on her groundbreaking oeuvre. She will talk about the long journey before she was propelled into the limelight and will chart her struggle against the established literary order. The novel Girl, Woman, Other marked the breakthrough of someone who was always already there.

He has been beaten up with a baseball bat, has narrowly survived a car crash and is rushing through life with a genetic heart condition. No wonder death plays a central role in the work of Guillermo Arriaga. In his latest novel too, Salvar el fuego. The acclaimed Mexican author and screenwriter – known for Amores perros and Babel – will be our guest for a conversation that will not pull punches.

With Jáchym Topol and Markéta Pilátová, we welcome two of the most important contemporary Czech authors. Together with writer Peter Vermeersch, they will talk about the remarkably topical themes to be found in their work. From Brexit to the war in Ukraine, from humans as eternal emigrants to the lures of populism. Just as in their novels, no theme will be avoided this evening.

Poetik Bazar concludes with a heroic song in three languages. To say that we looked forward to Warsan Shire’s debut Bless the Daughter is an understatement. In 2015 she became world-famous overnight with the poem ‘Home’, and today she writes songs with Beyoncé. On a lightning visit from LA, she will share the stage in Brussels with her Dutch and French translators, Radna Fabias and Sika Fakambi. Asha Karami will moderate the conversation.

Reviewer Jelle Van Riet talks to South African writer Damon Galgut about The Promise (Booker Prize 2021), a dazzling family epic set against the backdrop of a changing South Africa. Join us for a conversation about the troubled history of a country, the disparities between people of different origins, and the sense of honour.

Il y a un an, la romancière Lola Lafon a été autorisée à passer une nuit dans l’Annexe de la Maison d’Anne Frank. Une traversée nocturne hantée, qu’elle vient nous raconter le temps d’une soirée entrecoupée de lectures.

German author Anne Weber has been invited to talk about her surprising Epic Annette: A Heroine’s Tale. In writing this book, she performed a small miracle with big consequences. She told the true story of a real-life resistance heroine in a centuries-old verse form while creating a masterpiece that won her the German Book Prize. Karen Billiet, a literary journalist with a passion for German-language literature, talks to Anne Weber.

Jennifer Egan presents her new book The Candy House in Brussels. Journalist and author Annelies Beck talks to the American author about her rich and hilarious novel of ideas in which she ridicules our times – ‘the time of self-espionage’, as she sees it. Come and listen to this conversation about loneliness in times of hyperconnectivity.

Ruth Joos talks to British sensation Claire-Louise Bennett. This promises to be a crackling conversation about the need for imagination and the power of literature between a wilful writer and an eager reader. Houses, in so far as they are still sacred, will be reduced to rubble, and your list of books to read will be added to with care.

Rachel Cusk, the British-Canadian author of trenchant novels and essays and an avowed feminist, is coming to Passa Porta to talk about her brilliant oeuvre. In conversation with the French writer Julia Kerninon she will discuss her work, starting off with a talk on A life’s work: On Becoming a Mother, a seminal work on motherhood which only recently came out in French.

American author Hanya Yanagihara will be our guest for an exclusive conversation about her new book To Paradise, an ambitious novel about three very different versions of America.

Let’s brace ourselves for a one-off blitz visit by a true star of the literary firmament. The Chilean writer Alejandro Zambra will present his new novel Poeta chileno and talk to writer and literary critic Roderik Six about this doorstop of a novel about the surprises of fatherhood, the gravity of love and the pitfalls of growing up.

De Nederlandse auteur Rob van Essen stelt op feestelijke wijze zijn nieuwe roman Miniapolis voor. Collega-schrijver en eveneens groot liefhebber van surrealistische absurditeiten Roos van Rijswijk leidt de avond in. Net als in de romans van Rob van Essen mogen we ons deze avond verwachten aan het onverwachte.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Powers talks to writer and journalist Annelies Beck and composer Kris Defoort about his new novel Bewilderment and the opera version of The Time of Our Singing.

Geert Mak stelt zijn langverwachte opvolger van In Europa voor: Grote verwachtingen.

Done with empathy, compassion and equality. In The Diver’s Game, Jesse Ball sketches a dystopian world that is frighteningly credible.

An exceptional opportunity to meet the leading author of Generation X who in White, a collection of essays published this year, discusses cinema, writing and, yes, millennials. Once again, he offers discussion: is he a nihilist, a reactionary? He sees himself above all as a moralist.

The Hungarian master storyteller presents Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming, his first novel in 17 years. He will be interviewed by literary critic Marnix Verplancke. The actor Koen De Sutter will bring a reading from the novel.

Literary wonder and Passa Porta writer in residence Marek Šindelka reads from his story Stay Tuned and talks about his fascination with physicality and (mis)communication.

Literary critic Karen Billiet interviews Drago Jančar on his new novel In ljubezen tudi (And Love itself – English translation forthcoming). A rare visit from a Slovenian master.

The influential Palestinian writer-journalist Majd Kayyal shares his vision of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and talks about his contribution to the science-fiction collection Palestine +100.

Max Porter won the hearts of tens of thousands of readers with his debut Grief Is the Thing with Feathers. He now presents Lanny. Rarely has a second novel been met with so much anticipation.

Writer-in-residence Michel Laub raises a corner of the veil in Passa Porta on O Tribunal da quinta-feira, an oppressive story about relations, friendship and a witch hunt on social media.

Meet Daniel Kehlmann: without exaggerating, the best German-language writer of his generation

Opgelet: de meest taalvaardige Nederlandstalige komiek, Guy Mortier en Ruth Joos samen op het podium van Passa Porta!

Venez rencontrer l’écrivain belge francophone le plus primé de sa génération, traduit dans le monde entier. Une soirée sous le signe de la lecture au 140.

De wereldvermaarde reisschrijfster keert na vele jaren terug naar haar geboortedorp en vertelt voor het eerst het verhaal waar ze al die tijd omheen reisde.

Together with Festival America and Flagey, we have invited two absolute giants of American literature to our capital: Richard Powers and Colson Whitehead!