José FA Oliver is the new president of the German Pen

Literature lovers in Heilbronn are well aware of the new president of the German pen: poet, essayist and translator José FA Oliver was elected yesterday at the extraordinary general meeting in Darmstadt to succeed interim president Josef Haslinger.

Haslinger, who took office after journalist and publicist Deniz Yücel resigned in May after a power struggle in the German pen center, was not running for election. Oliver, born in Hausach in 1961, was a poet in the carriage during the Baden-Württemberg Literature Days in Heilbronn and a guest at the inauguration of the Heilbronn House of Literature.

In the last semester, Oliver led the workshop days of the “Wortstatt Heilbronn im Dialog” project. This is the name of the interdisciplinary enterprise for which Oliver developed the basic concept on behalf of Heilbronner Literaturhaus before work began in September 2021 with the cooperation partners Experimenta, the University of Bayreuth and Ludwig-Maximilians. -Uni Munich. Funded by the Dieter Schwarz Foundation, “Wortstatt” pursues the examination of language, multilingualism and intercultural literature.

José FA Oliver grew up speaking German, Spanish and Alemannic dialect in his native Black Forest. He studied Romance, German Studies and Philosophy in Freiburg. After having lived in Switzerland, Spain, Egypt, Peru, the United States, Canada and Turkey, Oliver lives in Hausach. He has been awarded, among others, the Chamisso Prize, the Troll Thaddäus Prize, the Joachim Ringelnatz Prize and the Heinrich Böll Prize.