June 2026
Summertime Is Here. No, Really.
Greetings, dear literary Berliners! Thanks for joining the community.
Here is the June newsletter for English-language literary—and WORD-adjacent—events happening in Berlin, in real life. It was a joy to compile all these goodies for you! There are still many great events in the last few days of May; check them out here.
It was lovely to meet some of you at the Branchentreff in May. While the rest of you remain mysterious—tell me about yourselves!
I started Berlin Literary Events in February 2025 after noticing there was no single list of English-language events in the city. I was compiling my own anyway, and it was a natural next step to make my selections available to my fellow Berlin-based writers and literary fans.
Curating this newsletter every week has me constantly scanning and filtering information, staying informed, and networking with organizations and facilitators/hosts/writers/etc to bring awareness and publicity to the thriving non-German literary scene in Berlin. It is a joy to connect people and events and host my own occasionally. However, it is a lot of work that I cannot sustain as a freelancer without some financial support. If you value the newsletter and use it to find events to enrich your life, please consider a gesture of solidarity by clicking on the button ‘Tip’. Or become a monthly paid subscriber!
Please send your July events by 23 June via the Form App here!
Events with * were added after initial publication and/or were corrected. So check the Substack post after you receive the email for the latest version.2
Thank you 🙏
Your newsletter perpetuator, Bettina
Join the shenanigans on Instagram! @berlin_literary_events
Table of Contents: Sponsor, Nifty Stuff, Calls for Submissions, Repeating Events, Events, Workshops/Classes
Check out my new sponsor! They value in-person, IRL, offline humanity :)
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Inner Circle is a private community for expats in Berlin who want deeper, lasting connections. When you join, you’re placed in a curated group of 8 people who meet regularly. Seeing the same people over time makes it easier to build trust, move past small talk, and form real friendships. Those conversations turn strangers into people you can rely on.
Members also get access to spontaneous hangouts, community events, and more.
Limited spots available. Apply now to join.
Nifty Stuff
—Art Exhibit at Palais Populaire > “Seeing Words, Reading Images”
🗓 March 20–August 17📍PalaisPopulaire by Deutsche Bank, Unter den Linden 5, 10117 Berlin 💶 regular €5, reduced €3 Mondays: free admission
The Written Art Collection in dialogue with the Deutsche Bank Collection. The Written Art Collection is one of the most important private collections of contemporary written art. The cafe is lovely too! I highly recommend this exhibit.
—If you missed the Percival Everett Event at Hamburger Bahnhof in May, you can watch it online here.
Submissions and Open Calls
📣 Open calls
—Stadtsprachen Magazin: Our CALL for SUBMISSIONS is once again open: we are looking for literary texts by Berlin-based authors = all languages welcome (except German). Apply now until June 4th (deadline) via submissions@stadtsprachen.de ! The next issue of our stadtsprachen magazine will be published in early summer 2026.
—The Berlin Literary Review submission window is now open to short stories, flash fiction, poetry, and essays. Guidelines are on the site. There’s no fixed deadline yet, but we’ll post an update about a week before submissions close
Repeating Events
—Co-Reading: Reading Party with Pausify
🗓 Every Saturday and Sunday at 11:00📍Invalidenstraße, 65 10557 Berlin (”EDGE Grand Central”)
Pausify is the biggest community and most active of book lovers and creatives in Berlin. Bring along your current book to read (or something creative to work on) and join us for this mix of a shared focus time + discussion.
- 11:00-11:30 - Meet & greet
- 11:30-12:30 - Silent focus time
- 12:30 - Discussion of books/ projects over coffee. Afterwards, join for lunch if you’d like. 💶 €9.90 (or €17,90/Month membership - access to all events, cancel any time)
—Desirelines Bookclub
📍Fraenkelufer 28, Berlin, Germany 10999
Follow us on Luma or IG (@) desirelinesbooks to find out what we’re reading next!
Desirelines bookclub is a new bookclub hosted by award-winning writer Monika Radojevic. It will explore the messiness, intimacy and complexity of desire, sex and sexuality in literature. Expect a carefully curated selection of books and open-minded, respectful discussions where everyone is welcome.
—Writing Meetup: Re(a)d Editing Meetup - Writing in Community
🗓 Monday, 8 June, 19:00-22:00📍Café Cralle, Hochstädter Straße 10A, 13347 Berlin
The monthly meetup for writers of any kind, in Berlin’s kiez of Wedding! An inclusive space for writing, editing, and exchanging feedback. Please join us on the 2nd Monday of every month for this event, built for all of your “in between works“ by the Re(a)d Wedding collective. 💶 free, buy a drink
—Workshop: Living Philosophy: a reflective writing club
🗓 Sundays: 7, 14, 21, 28 June, 11:00 - 12:00📍11 Ohmstr, 10179 Berlin
It’s a deep human need to make sense of our experience and tell our stories. And damn, does the world need new stories. In this embodied philosophy class, you’ll turn over new ideas in body and mind, and hopefully meet yourself in the process. Here’s a taste. 💶 Urban Sports Club check-in or €16
—Workshop: J.G. BALLARD as a thinker of the present with Pawel Jankiewicz
🗓 Wednesdays: June 3, 10, 17, 24, 18:30-20:30📍Galerie Linger, Boppstraße 2, Souterrain links, Kreuzkölln, Berlin, 10967
J.G. Ballard’s impressive body of work was often described as prophetic. We know this already. His novels from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s diagnosed with uncanny precision many conditions that define contemporary life today. The aim of the workshop in 4 modules is to conduct an imaginative activation; to discover new perceptual loopholes within the current image-world. For artists, writers, filmmakers, architects, and readers of contemporary culture. To sign up for this workshop: galerielinger@gmail.com. 💶 120€
Events
—Poesie Festival Berlin: May 15 to June 15 🗓
In its 25th year, it presents a city-wide pre-festival program and a main festival program at two venues: 📍Akademie der Künste at Hanseatenweg and silent green in Wedding. At the same time, the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival will take place from June 5 to June 8. With this extensive program, the Haus für Poesie will present poetry in all its forms for an entire month—ranging from readings, discussions, and performances to dance, music, visual arts, photography, and film, featuring more than 150 artistic voices. 💶 Check the website for English event and tickets.
—Workshop: Manifestos of Motherhood
🗓 Saturday, 30 May, 10:00-16:00📍Zwischenraum, Greifswalder Straße 8d, 10405 Berlin
A day of matriarchal writing and making with Catrin Kemp and Emma Rytoft. Spend the day delving into empowering feminist narratives of matrescence and motherhood. Together we will explore the language of mothering and create manifestos for the beautiful, complicated, flawed human beings we are - and are becoming. Audience: Mothers & grandmothers. 💶 €37,50
—Meetup: Creative Fruits Mornings
🗓 Saturday, 30 May, 11:30-13:00📍The Hoxton, Charlottenburg, Meinekestraße 18-19, 10719 Berlin. Ticket includes teas and fruits. 💶 €8
Hit reset on the last Saturday of every month with Creative Fruits Mornings x The Hoxton! Join us for a monthly creative writing kickstart and networking support session for writers hosted by Demi Anter. Open to all kinds of writers / artists, invigorate your routine with writing sprints and networking opportunities.
—Workshop: Creative Writing Masterclass: from idea to story
🗓 Monday, 1 June, 19:00-21:00📍Café Morgenrot, Kastanienallee 85, 10435 Berlin.
Join multi-award-winning writer Monika Radojevic to workshop how to turn your idea into a full-length novel. An interaction session focusing on the storytelling essentials: plot, character, and conflict. Through a combination of guided exercises and teaching, you will learn how to develop a good idea into an even better story. About the host: Monika is the youngest-ever winner of the Merky Books New Writers’ Prize and has been published in three genres by Penguin Random House. FLINTA only 💶 €20.00
—Reading: A History of the World in Six Plagues by Edna Bonhomme
🗓 Tuesday, 2 June, 19:00-21:00📍Festivalzentrum: Lounge 19, Eichhornstraße 3, 10785 Berlin 💶 7€/5€
As part of Doxumentale, International Documentary and Media Festival Berlin, Edna Bonhomme will read from her book. What do epidemics reveal about our society? This compelling book examines six epidemics—from cholera to COVID-19—to shed new light on issues of power, inequality, and exclusion. It blends history, cultural criticism, biography, and memoir into a multifaceted analysis, demonstrating how colonialism, racism, gender, and class shape our experiences of illness.
—Reading: Hands at Work: Stitches of Childhood from Afghanistan with Ahmad Shah Karimi
🗓 Wednesday, 3 June, 20:30📍Festivalzentrum: Lounge 19, Eichhornstraße 3, 10785 Berlin 💶 7€/5€
Also part of Doxumentale: Ahmad Shah steals apples with cousins under the moonlight and runs from the schoolteacher. He changes oil in a repair shop, molds birds from clay, and makes dolls to act out weddings. He studies how clothes are sewn, how shoes are mended, and how women stir halwa for Eid. He watches a man’s skull burst open on the street. Selling poplar trees behind his family’s back, Ahmad Shah finds the means to leave for Kabul.
—Book Launch: Poetry Reading: Here and Thereafter
📅 Wednesday, 3 June, 19:30-20:30📍about_bookshop, Linienstraße 151, 10115 Berlin
Book launch, poems, and a chat with Alice Miller and Matthew McDonald. 💶 €8
—Event-curated slam: The Body Slam
🗓 Friday, 5 June, 19:00-22:00📍Tristeza Bar, Pannierstrasse 5, 12047
A FLINTA poetry slam about the body and desire. The winner receives a 🌶️ dance live on stage by Slvt Riot founder Edie Montana. Performers include: sandee woodside, Ana Ornelas, Puck, Demi Anter, Emilian W and Delphine HT with a guest performance by The Gender Whisperer. Bring your crush, it’s going to get 🔥 💶 €10 or donation.
Door sales only/No photographs.
—Panel and Reading: Sebald Remembering
🗓 Saturday, 6 June, 20:30-22:30📍Lettrétage, Veteranenstr. 21, 10119 Berlin
At Sebald Remembering, writers Marcel Krueger, Paul Scraton, and Madeleine Watts will discuss Sebald’s work and his legacy in a conversation moderated by Sanders Isaac Bernstein. After a short break we will enjoy a series of readings—submitted by the general Berlin public—that grapple with the Sebaldian topic of crisis. All languages and backgrounds welcome. 💶 free
—Conference: RageCon3 for FLINTA
🗓 Saturday, 6 June, 19:00-21:00📍 ProjectTogether GmbH (Alexanderplatz), Berlin
BY FEMINIST FICTION BERLIN AND WOMEN* WRITING BERLIN LAB E.V. A DAY OF WOMEN*S RAGE DISCUSSIONS, PANELS, AND WORKSHOPS ORGANIZED BY FEMINIST FICTION BERLIN AND WOMEN* WRITING BERLIN LAB E.V. The full-day convention includes writing workshops, a panel discussion, a self-defense class, theater activation class, and a RAGE OPEN MIC Spoken Word where everyone can express their rage. 💶 €30 daypass
—Lecture performance: Dead Ladies Show #43
🗓 Sunday, 7 June, 19:00-21:30📍Lettrétage, Veteranenstr. 21, 10119 Berlin
The DEAD LADIES SHOW is a series of entertaining and inspiring presentations on women who achieved amazing things against all odds. Each show hosts passionate cheerleaders of too-oft forgotten women, inviting its loyal audience into a sexy séance (of sorts) celebrating these impressive icons, turbulent lives, and deathless legacies. In English and German. 💶 10€ / 4€
—Workshop: “Sunday Morning Pages & Brunch”
🗓 Sundays, 7 and 21 June, 10:30-12:30 📍Kunstraum Heartspace, Danziger Straße 172, 10407 Berlin.
A Sunday morning just for you and your words. We’ll be meeting at the beautiful Kunstraum Heartspace in Prenzlauer Berg: a small group, inspiration, guided meditation, and vegan treats from Café Neue Liebe. Registration via kontakt@sarahniklowitz.de. Please bring your laptop or what you usually write on and let me know if you have any allergies for the vegan brunch. Languages: German and English. 💶 €39 or €49 includes PDF Workbook “Journaling für Beginner” (in German)
—Meetup: Re(a)d Editing Meetup - Writing in Community
🗓 Monday, 8 June, 19:00-22:00📍Café Cralle, Hochstädter Straße 10A, 13347 Berlin
The monthly meetup for writers of any kind, in Berlin’s kiez of Wedding! An inclusive space for writing, editing, and exchanging feedback. Please join us on the 2nd Monday of every month for this event, built for all of your “in between works“ by the Re(a)d Wedding collective. 💶 €free
—Party: Lettrétage Summer Party
🗓 Friday, June 12, 18:00📍K26 Raum für Ideen (Space for Ideas), Kolonnenstraße 26, 10829 Berlin
With live music, wine/sparkling wine/non-alcoholic beverages, and a buffet, we’ll be reminiscing about the past 20 years of Lettrétage and doing what we enjoy most: opening our doors to valued and interesting people. We are especially pleased that the Berlin State Secretary for Culture, Cerstin Richter-Kotowski, will be giving a welcoming address. We look forward to seeing you! Please let us know if you can attend so we can ensure there’s enough wine/sparkling wine/non-alcoholic beverages and appetizers for everyone! Register for the reception 💶 free
—Bookclub: Book Club with Helen Faller: Sex and Rage by Eve Babitz
🗓 Saturday, 13 June, 18:00–20:00📍Metis Books and Café, Gleimstraße 21, 10437 Berlin. A blazing hymn to pleasure, reinvention, and the beautiful chaos of a life lived without apology. Register here. Book available in the store for purchase. 💶 €9.17
—Book Launch/Reading and Discussion: Translating Herta Müller: Berlin Book Launch for The Village on the Edge of the World
📅 Wednesday, 17 June, 19:30-22:00📍Lettrétage, Veteranenstr. 21, 10119 Berlin
Join us for the Berlin launch of The Village on the Edge of the World (Granta, UK) by Herta Müller, in which the Nobel Prize-winning author reflects on her life and craft. A short reading from the book will be followed by a discussion between critic Alex Wells and translator Kate McNaughton. 💶 free
—Reading/Talk: Translating Herta Müller: Berlin Book Launch for The Village on the Edge of the World 💶 free
🗓 Wednesday, 17 June, 19:30-22:00📍Lettrétage, Veteranenstr. 21, 10119 Berlin
Join us for the Berlin launch of The Village on the Edge of the World, by Herta Müller (original title: Mein Vaterland war ein Apfelkern). A short reading from the book will be followed by a discussion between critic Alex Wells and translator Kate McNaughton.
—Book Launch: Untold Narratives x My Dear Kabulat Chapters Bookshop
🗓 Wednesday, 17 June, 19:00📍Chapters Bookshop, Wilsnacker Straße 60, 10559 Berlin 💶 €6.51
My Dear Kabul: Twenty-one Afghan women writers on keeping a collective diary under Taliban rule. With Untold Narratives. Voice & Witness Batool Haidari and Naeema Ghani in conversation with Lucy Hannah
—Book discussion: Nussaibah Younis in conversation with Sharmaine Lovegrove
🗓 Friday, June 19, 19:00📍Chapters Bookshop, Wilsnacker Straße 60, 10559 Berlin
💶 €11.83
Nussaibah Younis on faith, belonging, and finding comedy in the darkest material. Featuring her award-winning debut novel Fundamentally. A novel about a British Asian academic sent to Iraq to work in deradicalisation should not be this funny. And yet.
—Reading: Berlin Writers' Workshop Student Reading Series
🗓 Sunday, 21 June, 19:00-20:00📍Cafe Plume, Warthestraße 60, 12051 Berlin
—Meetup: NFLB Meetup - Network of Independent Literary Scene in Berlin
🗓 Tuesday, 23 June, 19:30📍Biergarten Jockel, Ratiborstraße 14c, Kreuzberg
the NFLB invites you to our next members’ get-together. Are you an author, translator or otherwise active in the literary scene? Then come along! To chat, brainstorm or make new friends. Would you like to find out more about the Berlin literary scene? Would you like to have some change from writing at your desk on your own all day? Would you like to get involved? Do you just want to have a relaxed summer drink with colleagues? And bring friends, including those who are interested in joining the NFLB. We have reserved a table outside at Jockel Biergarten . (The football will be on, but we don’t have to watch it.) Please send an RSVP to lucy.jones@nflb.de 💶 free.
—Reading/Talk: Book Launch “Blind, ins Auge”
🗓 Wednesday, 24 June, 19:30-22:00📍Lettrétage, Veteranenstr. 21, 10119 Berlin
The publication Blind, ins Auge examines the role of political imagery in the context of the 2022–2023 protests in Iran. It focuses on the question of what happens when sight itself is suppressed and on the possibilities and limitations of images. 💶 free
—Presentation/talk: Scheherazade to #MeToo: The Power of Women’s Stories
🗓 Wednesday, 24 June, 18:30-21:00📍CIEE U-Lounge, Gneisenaustraße 27, 10961 Berlin. The U-Lounge is located in the courtyard on the ground floor
Feminist author Dina Honour focuses on the power of women’s stories, exploring how they’re used to form communities and facilitate change, from Feminist consciousness-raising groups to #MeToo, and the ways in which women’s stories can reshape our narratives. Can those new shapes help us imagine a more inclusive future? 💶 5€ (goes to an AWC Berlin charity). Sponsored by AWC Berlin but open to the public.
—Festival: Miss Read: The Berlin Art Book Fair & Festival 2026
🗓 June 26–28📍Silent Green Gerichtstraße 35, 13347 Berlin
The Berlin Art Book Fair & Festival brings together a wide selection of the most interesting artists/authors, periodicals, art publishers and zines and is accompanied by a series of lectures, discussions, book launches and workshops exploring the boundaries of contemporary publishing and the possibilities of the book. This year’s Miss Read will have a special focus on bibliodiversity. 💶 free
—Book Club and Film Screening: Buch Klub Orakel
🗓 Saturday, 27 June, 20:00 book discussion, 21:00 film screening
📍F-HAUS, Lottumstr. 9, 10119 Berlin
We read and discuss a selected book and screen a related film afterward at F-HAUS, a creative space/bar in Prenzlauer Berg. We meet on the last Saturday of each month. Email for the next book we are reading and film we are screening: radiohochsee@gmail.com 💶 Free, donations welcome.
—Performance: CONVERGENCE 12
🗓 Saturday, 27 June, 19:30-22:00📍Lettrétage, Veteranenstr. 21, 10119 Berlin
CONVERGENCE XII invites attentive listening, porous boundaries, and the quiet thrill of disorientation. Opening the evening will be Kross Collective co-founder Days Like Television. Following this will be DeeeVeee, a psychedelic-noise duo. Closing the event will be HOTARU, a guitar and electronics duo. 💶 7€
—Storytelling: THE BEAR presents Eve of the Champs ‘26 - Your Favorite Storytellers from the Last 10 Shows
🗓 Saturday, June 27, 19:00-19:30📍THEATRE POOLBoxhagener Straße 18; 3. Hinterhof, 10245 Berlin-Friedrichshain, 3. HinterhofBerlin-Friedrichshain
Every year, we close the season with something special.
Not an open stage, but a return. Eight storytellers. Eight voices you couldn’t forget.
Chosen by you. They made you laugh, pause, feel, and maybe even shift something inside. And now—they’re back. Theme “Surrender.” 💶 40 €?
—Reading and Music: Reading with Bettina Rolyn and others at Art Exhibit “Cosmic Air” at Künstlerhaus Bethanien
🗓 Saturday, 27 June, 18:15 readings (EN/DE), 19:30 live music by Janet Gilette📍Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Kottbusser Str. 10/d, 10999 Berlin 💶 free - pass the hat. I’m grateful to be invited to be part of the Vernissage of the interdisciplinary art show “Cosmi Air” at Künstlerhaus Bethanien which features 14 artists from the former Australische Botschaft Ost atelier community. Come out to hear me read, and some live music.
—Writing Workshop: Cosmic Air Ekphrastic Writing Workshop - facilitated by yours truly, Bettina Rolyn
🗓 Sunday, 28 June, 12:00-13:30📍Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Kottbusser Str. 10/d, 10999 Berlin. Bring yourself, your eyeballs, and an open heart to look at the artworks and let your reflections land on paper in the form of words in—any language you want.
💶 free, donations always welcome.
—Meetup: Re(a)d Wedding: a berlin open mic for poetry and storytelling
🗓 Monday, 29 June, 19:00-22:00📍Hank Chinaski, Koloniestraße 32, 13359 BerlinThe monthly open mic in Berlin’s kiez of Wedding! This is an inclusive space in which all mediums of speech are welcome, in any language. 💶 donations
Writing Courses
—Classes at Falschrum Office
Juliana Gleeson teaches: PICKING THE RIGHT FORM FOR THE JOB - Single Purpose Writing
🗓 June 14 & 15, 14:00-19:00📍Braunschweiger Str 16, Berlin
How do we keep our writing perverse without losing clear purpose? How do we keep our style fresh, without muddying our values? What is a punchline worth politically? With one eye on this polyphonic medley of voices and styles, Juliana will explore the history of forms (from Plato to Wynter) across day 1. Day 2 will feature in-depth participant experimentation—expect your style to become both reformed and deformed. 💶 €100-150
—Berlin Summer University of the Arts: Writing = Design
🗓 1-5 June daily 10:00-17:00📍Berlin University of the Arts / Berlin Career College, Bundesallee 1–12, 10719 Berlin 💶 €690 slots still available
#design #writing #text Are words enough? In a world full of fast-paced and artificial imagery, we want to highlight one of our simplest yet most powerful tools: words. They are easy to use, and one word can go a long way to surprise, clarify, oppose and convince. Learn about writing as a tool. Make words work for you!
—Zine Writing and Production Course with Found in Wedding
🗓 Weekly drop-in sessions held on Thursdays from 18:00-21:00 💶 €214.27
Martin-Opitz-Straße 21, 13357 Berlin
Get creative this June and make your own zine from scratch in this fun, hands-on workshop all about writing and producing literary art. A “Zine” is a self-published, self made object that can be shared with the world. Zines cover a wide range of ideas. Some are text focused, others are more visual. There is no wrong way to make a Zine. What makes Zines special is that you control the writing and the means of production.
Berlin Writers’ Workshop - - they also have online courses
Word & Sound: A Weekend Intensive
Saturday & Sunday, June 6th & 7th
Time: 13:00-16:00
Instructor: David Grundy
Location: Kreuzberg
Tuition: €150
Poetry Writing I (4-week intensive) with Tracy Fuad
Start date: June 14th
End date: July 6th, 2026
Tuesdays, 19:00-21:00
Location: Alt-Treptow
Tuition: €200
Creative Writing I (In-Person) with Gurmeet Singh
Start date: July 1st, 2026
End date: August 18th, 2026
Wednesdays, 19:00-21:00
Location: Neukölln
Tuition: €400
Weekend Poetry Intensive with Zack Darsee
July 11th & July 18th
Wednesdays, 19:00-21:00
Location: Neukölln
Tuition: €150
The Reader - they also have online courses
The Art of Autofiction 2
Course Tutor: Siouxzi Connor
Thursday evenings, 18:30-20:00
Date: starting June 4th, 2026
Where: Zabriskie Books, (Reichenberger Str. 150, 10999 Berlin)
Number of sessions: 5
Maximum Participants: 12
€150
Join the fun on Instagram! @berlin_literary_events
Apologies for the prior wording of my poll on gender; I did not mean to contribute to ‘othering’.
I don’t always find the time to update events after publication, as there are simply too many, and especially so many on short notice, but if you have an event you’d like me to add after publication, a donation to my PayPal is a great way to get my attention. 😁