ANUSH KOCHARYAN AT RESIDENCY EXCHANGE LEIPZIG-YEREVAN PROGRAM AND LEIPZIG BOOK FAIR 2025

No sooner had Anush Kocharyan completed her residency program at Literarisches Colloquium Berlin (LCB) in February, 2025, than she learnt that she is selected for Residency Exchange Leipzig-Yerevan Program from March 2-30, 2025 at the historical Hanns Eisler House. The residency was a mutual program of the City of Leipzig and the City of Yerevan in cooperation with the Goethe-Zentrum in Armenia. Partner Institution in Leipzig was Literaturhaus e.V. and ARI Literature Foundation in Yerevan.

Anush’s stay in Leipzig coincided with the Leipzig Buchmesse, where she was invited to have a panel discussion and talk about her work and the new novel at Cafe Europa, on the fair grounds.
The opening speech of the meeting was delivered by Katharina Goerig, Head of the Literature and Translation Grant Programme at the Goethe-Institut, the meeting was moderated by Arevik Ashkharoyan, literary agent and founder of ARI Literary Agency and Literature Foundation. Kristina Raßmann, from International Cooperation Unit of the Leipzig City Administration read an extract from Anush Kocharyan’s novel in German, which she started writing during her residency at Literarisches Colloquium Berlin and continued at Residency Exchange Leipzig-Yerevan Program.

After the unveiling of Avetik Isahakyan’s memorial plaque, which is now on the wall of the building where the writer lived during his student years, official reception was organized during which Dr. Gabriele Goldfuß, the Head of the Department for International Cooperation at the Leipzig City Administration, quoted an extract from Anush’s novel in her welcome speech. Anush started writing this novel at her residency in LCB and continued working on it in Leipzig.

“It is a country the size of a drop. At least, on the world map, it appears just that big. And if the map is of a smaller scale, the country does not appear at all. Maro would say—it is a cursed country. Budu would call it—one footstep. Petra sees the country in her dreams—large and wealthy, but in reality, Petra, who collects tin cans, rarely dreams. For Mantash, the country is the bread bakery, and that’s all. For Arshak, the country is the only freshwater lake—full of shimmering fish, and for Arshak’s wife, the country is the fish intestines she pours into a big bag every evening, wiping her nose with her fish-scented hands. For Grandpa, it is a ruined country; for Great-Grandpa, it is Soviet; for Great-Grandpa’s father, it was the country where he handed his son to the orphanage.

They say there were other times. But this is the time I was born into.”

Extract from the intrօduction of the novel Edward and the Country by Anush Kocharyan

Goethe Institute President Gesche Joost from the Munich headquarters visited the Armenian stand at Leipzig Book Fair for a meeting and conversation with the first Armenian writer in residence at Leipzig, Anush Kocharyan. Ms Joost also visited Armenia at the end of the week, to do an official opening of Goethe Institute in Yerevan and mentioned her meeting with Anush at the reception with participation of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, outlining the importance of such cooperation.