Kaleb Erdmann - Die Ausweichschule; Lesung und Gespräch

Die Ausweichschule was shortlisted for the German Book Prize. Kaleb Erdmann is now coming to Stuttgart for a reading and discussion.

Die Ausweichschule:
On the last day of the Abitur exams in 2002, shots are fired at the Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt. Our narrator witnesses this day as an eleven-year-old and, in the weeks that follow, registers the helplessness of adults in the face of this crime. More than twenty years later, the event once again bursts into his life and triggers an obsessive preoccupation with the subject, which is to result in a novel project. But why reopen old wounds after so many years? Does he have the right to do so? It soon becomes clear: you never write just for yourself.

Kaleb Erdmann:
Kaleb Erdmann was born in Witten an der Ruhr in 1991 and grew up in the Ruhr region, Bayreuth, Erfurt and Munich. Today he is an author and playwright. He has been performing on stages throughout the German-speaking world since 2008. He studied Literary Writing at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig, was nominated for the Retzhofer Drama Prize in 2020 and was a finalist in the open mike - competition for young literature in 2021. He has been an author for various television and entertainment formats since 2020. His debut novel wir sind pioniere was published by Ullstein-Verlag in February 2024, won the lit.COLOGNE debut prize and was shortlisted for the Ulla Hahn Prize. He received the working scholarship of the state capital Düsseldorf and the residency scholarship in the artists' village of Schöppingen. In 2025, he wrote the play Always Carrey On about the actor Jim Carrey for the Berliner Ensemble.