Jonathan Garfinkel is an internationally acclaimed author of six books translated into a dozen languages. He is the author of the 2011 Governor General’s finalist for drama, “House of Many Tongues”, the memoir “Ambivalence: Crossing the Israel/Palestine Divide”, and the novel “In a Land Without Dogs the Cats Learn to Bark,” both of which were translated and published in German. He is the author of several books of poetry and plays. His plays have been produced in numerous languages, including French, German, Russian and Ukrainian. A frequent contributor to the Globe and Mail and Walrus Magazine, he was named by the Toronto Star as “one to watch”. Garfinkel holds a PhD in the field of Medical and Health Humanities in the department of MLCS at University of Alberta and is completing a memoir about living with type one diabetes and the Open-source hacking community for which he received the Berliner Arbeitsstipendien nichtdeutschsprachige Literatur 2025. He is also finishing a book of poetry, “Do You Love Your Life?”, forthcoming in 2027. Born in Toronto, raised in Montreal, he lives in Berlin.
Was hat Sie nach Berlin verschlagen? Die Liebe? Der Zufall? Die Weltpolitik?
I first came to Berlin in 1998. It was a different time. The artists and writers I met were less focused on careers and more on disturbing shit and dancing. There was a lot of dancing in those days. Nobody sat still. I kept coming back, and finally, when I received a year-long stipendium at Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, I decided to move to Berlin. I bought a flat in Wedding when it was still cheap. While I had to go back to Canada for a while due to health and financial reasons, I came back this last time for work and love during the pandemic.
An Berlin liebe ich:
I love that it's a city of constant change and evolution. I love the quiet of the streets at night. I love the parks and cemeteries to think in, and the fact you can end up in the weirdest of places at the strangest of times. I love its improvisation.
In Berlin vermisse ich:
I miss the days of spontaneity, when you'd go out and maybe not come home for a few days just because something interesting happened. Also I miss life when it was so cheap nothing seemed to matter, and being unemployed was the norm.
Ein Lieblingsort in Berlin:
Kumplenest 3000.
Sind Sie in Berlin ein anderer Mensch, eine andere Autorin, ein anderer Autor als im Land Ihrer Herkunft? Inwiefern?
I used to think I was more politicized in my writing here, and it's true, I can be, certainly when it comes to journalism. But for my poetry and prose I think the voice and themes remain the same.
Ein literarisches Werk, das ich gern geschrieben hätten:
Satantango by Krasznahorkai. Anything by Emmanuel Carrere.
Berliner Arbeitsstipendien nichtdeutschsprachige Literatur 2025 for The Blood-
Hackers, 2025.
Canada Council Grant to Individual Artists, 2023.
SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Fellowship for PhD, 2020-2023.
Canada Council Grant to Individual Artists for In a Land Without Dogs the Cats Learn to
Bark, 2020.
Henry Kreisel Scholarship in Canadian Literature. University of Alberta, 2019.
Bernard Amyot Award for Teaching Creative Writing. National Theatre School of Canada, 2015.
JAK Writing Residency. Budapest, Hungary. September - December 2009.
Akademie Schloss Solitude. Writing esidency, April 2008 - March 2009.
KM Hunter Award for Emerging Artists (Theatre), 2008.
