“The Soul and its Languages” is the theme of Poetica III, the third festival for world literature organised by the International College Morphomata of the University of Cologne together with the German Academy for Language and Literature in Cologne from 9 to 14 January 2017.

Poetica III is curated by the poet and essayist Monika Rinck. She has invited authors from four continents and nine countries and asked them to tackle the soul, its voices and conceptions. They can do it each in their own way, in a series of afternoon discussion forums and evening readings where the poetic event takes form in linguistic art, voice, breath, rhythm and animation.

The guests include the authors Javier Bello from Chile, Michael Donhauser from Austria, Nurduran Duman from Turkey, Maricela Guerrero from Mexico, Gila Lustiger from Germany/France, Angelika Meier from Germany, Zeruya Shalev from Israel, Eleni Sikelianos from the USA, Galsan Tschinag from Mongolia, Stefan Weidner from Germany, the musicians Chris Fesch, Michael Schmidt and Franz Tröger as well as the religious scholar Lorenz Wilkens.

The Poetica literature festival was launched in 2015 by the International College Morphomata of the University of Cologne and the German Academy for Language and Literature. It brings together authors and scholars for public readings and debates in Cologne with a different theme every year. Poetica III website