Welcome to Writers' Room!
The Writers’ Room
The Writers’ Room (WR) is an institution providing writing
space for authors and writers. It follows its model
of the Writers’ Room in New York City and is the only one of
its kind in Europe.
The Room
The WR consists of two large studio-rooms: the main room with
8 work stations and a conference room for meetings,
workshops, readings and seminars plus two extra work stations. The venue is situated under
the roof of an old can-factory having a very unique industrial
charme and which is also home to fine art-, theatre- and dancing
studios, movie- as well as intercultural organizations. So
authors find a number of opportunities to meet different genres
of arts and artists.
The organizational structure is the one of a non-profit
organization that is administrated by a board of volunteers and
managed by a director.
The room is subsidized by the Kulturbehörde der Hansestadt
Hamburg, the department of cultural affairs of Hamburg and by
membership fees.
The People: What does the WR offer beyond a working place?
In this atmosphere friendships evolve and joint projects are
designed, which find support by the organization. In this sense
the WR is a medium for contact among the writers and an exchange
place for information concerning the cultural scene,
scholarships, prizes, callings and publishing houses.
The Activities
Most international contacts relate to poetry slams, spoken
word poets like Bob Holman and Maggie Estep have been guests of
the Writers’ Room, performing together with Hamburg poets at
the MOJO Club, a Jazz music venue.
The international internet-project Telepoetics, the network
Deutsches Literaturforum at CompuServe as well as the
intercultural exchange programs with the Baltic nations and the
city of Chicago were initiated by the WR.
During the summer months the
writers move to the Elbe
shoreline. Poets on the beach - authors of different
literary groups beyond the WR read and party at the banks of the
river Elbe.
The "Reiters Ruhm" offers the opportunity to
introduce new texts and have them diskussed and critized by
fellow authors.
Since January 99 the WR offers seminars to authors focusing
on the commercial aspect of writing and the literary market.
Issues like how to promote a manuscript and how to find a
publishing house are subjects being covered. These activities
reflect the creative atmosphere prevalent at the WR making more
happening than mere writing.
