Sylt Foundation and stimmen Afrikas at Allerweltshaus Cologne are starting a new Residency exchange programme for writers from Germany and South Africa in 2015

Two writers meet, exchange their works and introduce the foreigner into the versatile worlds of Cologne and Johannesburg. Each year a German writer will travel to Johannesburg and a South African writer will travel to Cologne to meet, share works and take part in the cultural life of the two cities.

The first two Rhine-South Africa-Fellows will be Luxemburg writer and Cologne resident Guy Helminger, who will be in Johannesburg in September 2015 and Captonian writer Rachel Zadok, who will be in Sylt/Germany and Cologne in September/October 2015.

 
Guy Helminger was born in 1963 in Esch / Alzette (Luxemburg) and studied German Literature and Philosophie in Luxemburg, Heidelberg and Cologne.

Since 1985 he has been living in Cologne und working as a writer.

 From June to July 2006 he was writer in residence in Hyderabad (India), February-March 2007 he spent in Teheran (Iran) for the project „westöstlicherdiwan“ and from December 2008 to the end of January 2009 he was author in residence in Saana (Yemen).

 2012 poetics lecturship at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

 Together with his colleague Navid Kermani Guy Helminger presents since  8 years the „Literary Salon International“ in Cologne. From 2010-2012 he presented  a cultural show on Luxemburg TV and for the moment a show called DNA.

 His radioplay „5 Sekunden Leben“, was awarded play of the month in March 2001. 2002 he received the Förderpreis für Jugend-Theater des Landes Baden-Württemberg, the same year the  Prix Servais  for his book „Rost“ and in 2004 the 3sat-Preis. His hometown honored him in 2006 with the Prix du mérite culturel de la ville d’Esch.

 
 Publications:

 Prose:

Rost. (Short Stories) Editions Phi, Echternach 2001

Etwas fehlt immer. (Short Stories) Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 2005

Morgen war schon. (Novel) Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 2007

Die Ruhe der Schlammkröte. (Novel) Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln 2007

Neubrasilien. (Novel) Eichborn Verlag, Frankfurt 2010

Eine Tasse für Nofretete Nilpferd. Mit Zeichnungen von Manuela Olten. (Book for children) Bloomsbury/Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2010

 

 Poetry:

Die Gegenwartsspringer. Verlag am Schluechthaus, Esch/Alzette 1986

Entfernungen (in Zellophan). Editions Phi, Echternach 1998

Leib eigener Leib. Editions Phi, Echternach 2000

Ver- wanderung. Editions Phi, Esch / Alzette 2002

Libellenterz. Gesammelte Gedichte. Editions Phi, Differdange 2010

 

Radioplays:

Habicht. SR 1999

5 Sekunden Leben. WDR 2001

Morgen ist Regen. WDR 2001

Wasser.  WDR 2002

Nachbarn. HR 2002

Fluggeräte. WDR 2003

Rekonstruktion Kresch. WDR 2005

Frau Gantner. WDR 2010

Fischsuppe. WDR 2011

 

Theater:

Venezuela. Premiere in London 2003  (Oberon Books, London 2003; German Original: Editions Phi 2004; France: Editions Théâtrales 2008)

(Staging in Luxemburg (2004), Vienna (2004) und New York (2005)…)

Das Leben hält bis zuletzt Überraschungen bereit. Premiere at the Grand Théatre de Luxembourg 2011 (2012 staging in Vienna)

 

Screenplays:

7 Screenplays for the Luxemburg Sitcom „Weemseesdet“ Luxemburg 2011

 

Poetics:

Guy Helminger. Ein Sprachanatom bei der Arbeit. Hrsg. v. Rolf Parr, Thomas Ernst und Claude D. Conter. Synchron Verlag, Heidelberg 2014