A Question For the Jury - On interviewing Uwe Kalkowski

September 29, 2018

Even if you, Dear Reader, might have already thought this blog was self-centered, narcissistic, and boring, today I’m going to top that by doing something meta: blogging about an interview with a blogger who is on the jury of a literary prize (one that’s actually important). So click away or hold onto your hats!

Early this past spring I was asked if I would be interested in interviewing Uwe Kalkowski, a German blogger who had been the first to named part of the jury selecting the German Book Prize. Although I’m somewhat new to the practice of blogging myself, I’ve been reading literary blogs for over ten years. Kalkowski’s blog is one of the better, and although he’s not a professional literary critic, he has been working in publishing since 1993, and has been head to marketing for RWS Verlag, which is specialized in legal and judicial publications. The name of the blog—literally translates as ‘a person who sits in coffee houses—brings to mind the place (usually in his adopted home of Cologne) where Kalkowski does most of his reading.

Every text and every interview should keep the potential audience in mind, and in this case it is English-speaking writers, translators, and people in the publishing industry. Aside from a hidden Benjamin reference, my aim was to construct an accessible narrative, especially considered the limited number of words. At any rate, it was certainly interesting to think about the increasing role of blogger in the German-language literary scene. Enjoy the interview.


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