Jury - Berlin Stories

For the 2020 selection round, the jury consists of Alexander Gumz, Josephine Bätz and Bianca Othmann.

Josephine Bätz

born 1996, studies film sciences at the Freie Universität Berlin. Josephine Bätz has been writing mainly poetry since her childhood and for some time has also been writing short prose. She has been able to develop her style further through writing workshops, including Feridun Zaimoglu's 2016 guest professorship at the FU as part of the Heiner Müller Guest Professorship, and her successful participation in several competitions, such as Lyrix in February 2017, the national competition for young poetry, and the "Treffen junger Autor*innen "2016. During an Erasmus stay in Ireland, she had already explored the city of Dublin in the form of a poetry blog called Poetry Abroad. As writer-in-residence of the Berlin Stories program 2019, Josephine Bätz used the opportunity to deal with Berlin in various literary forms.

Photo: © Dirk Skiba

Alexander Gumz

born in 1974, is editor and organizer at KOOK e.V. and for the poesiefestival berlin, co-founder of the literature and music night "HAM.LIT" in Hamburg, the lyric night "Part of the movement" in Leipzig and Frankfurt/Main and the literary festival "Wortgarten" in Uckermark. His latest book of poems, "Barbarians expect", was published by kookbooks in January 2018.

Bianca Othmann

born in 1996, studies German Literature and Cultural Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Besides her studies she workes at the BKI - Büro für Kultur & Internationales at the studierendenWERK BERLIN and organizes and moderates the student reading platform "Lies los!"

For the 2019 selection round of Berlin Stories, the jury consisted of Alexander Gumz, Charlotte Wührer (first writer-in-residence of the Berlin Stories program 2018) and Michael Bies.

Foto: © Dirk Skiba

Alexander Gumz

Charlotte Wührer

She was the first student town clerk in 2018. born in 1990, she studied English Studies at the FU Berlin. She is from England and has lived in Berlin for six years. She grew up bilingual, studied English Literature in Cambridge and then completed her primary school teacher training. She writes short stories, poetry, Young Adult and Flash Fiction.

Dr. Michael Bies

born in 1979, is a literary scholar at the FU Berlin in DFG-research project "The Craft of Literature, 1775-2010". He researches literature and science history since the 18th century, ethnological literature, travel literature and about time in literature and sciences.