Ramy Al-Asheq is a Syrian-Palestinian poet, journalist and curator. He published five poetry collections in Arabic. His first poetry collection in German “Gedächtnishunde” was published in March 2019 by Sujet Verlag. Many of his texts have been published in anthologies and literature magazines in Bosnian, English, French, German, Kurdish, Polish and Spanish. Some of his texts were translated into songs, performances and works of fine art. In 2020, His first books in English will be published by Seagull books. In 2014 Al-Asheq was invited to come to Germany through Artist-in-Residence program of Heinrich-Boell-haus Langenbroich. After one year he received a literature award from Al-Qattan foundation in Ramallah. In 2017 he launched the German-Arabic culture magazine FANN. In addition, he works as a curator for Literaturhaus Berlin and he is co-founder of Arabisch-deutsche Literaturtage (Arabic-Germn Literature Days) festival in Berlin. In 2018 he was selected as a fellow of the Academy of Arts in Berlin and won two artist-in-residency scholarships from Künstlerhaus Lukas (Arenshoop) and Künstlerdorf Schöppingen.
What brought you to Berlin? Love? World politics? Or was it a coincidence?
Love.
What do you love about Berlin?
It is more open minded than other city
What do you miss in Berlin?
Still difficult and doesn’t feel home.
What is your favorite spot in Berlin?
Sonnenallee for food. Weserstraße for drinks. The canal in xberg... but the most favorite spot is Berghain.
Would you say you are a different person in Berlin? A different translator? And if yes, in what way?
Yes. I have a different angle to look at things. One of them is writing itself. Negatively and positively affected.
Which existing literary work do you wish you had written?
- “DER KÖNIG VERNEIGT SICH UND TÖTET“ Herta Müller.
- “Yalo”- Elias Khoury
- “Praising the high shadow” - Mahmoud Darwish
And many others
- Fellowship at Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart) | 2020-2021
- Fellowship at Akademie der Künste (Berlin) | 2018-2019
- Artist-in-Residence at Künstlerdorf Schöppingen | 2018
- Artist-in-Residence at Künstlerhaus Lukas (Ahrenshoop) | 2018
- Best International Entrepreneur of the Year, Moneygram Italy | 2017
- Literature Award for In My Travel Outfit, Al-Qattan Foundation (Palestine) | 2015
- Artist-in-Residence at Heinrich Böll Haus (Langenbroich) | 2014
