Murder on the Hellweg - Crime Scene Ruhr
Graphic: Westfälisches Literaturbüro Unna
We will kill you again! - the popular biennial "Murder on the Hellweg - Crime Scene: Ruhr" will be held for the fifth time in 2010. "Murder on the Hellweg V" will take place from 18 September to 13 November - and involve more than 200 events, over 400 readings and around 600 participants from all over the planet. The festival is now one of the largest literature events anywhere in the world. And only the best will be present at "Murder on the Hellweg V"!
No less than 200 authors, including 70 international celebrities from 33 countries on almost every continent - China, Canada, the USA, India, Australia, Russia, Africa, Argentina and a raft of European countries - will gather on the Hellweg in the autumn.
They include: Håkan Nesser, Åke Edwardson, Arne Dahl (all from Sweden), Gianrico Carofiglio (Italy), Joy Fielding (Canada), Robert Wilson (England), Claudia Piñeiro (Argentina), Deon Meyer (South Africa), Nuri Vittachi (Hong Kong), Jilliane Hoffman, John Katzenbach and Karen Rose (all from the USA) and Jussi Adler-Olsen (Denmark). Top-selling German authors - for instance, Ingrid Noll, Sebastian Fitzek, Doris Gercke and Andreas Franz - will complete the high-calibre line-up of literary talent, ably assisted by celebrity actors such as Dietmar Bär, Peter Lohmeyer, Nina Petri and Marie-Luise Marjan, and presenters including Christine Westermann, Antje Deistler and Thomas Hackenberg.
As in other years, the events will be staged in many different venues, often at unusual locations: ruined castles, coal mines, old churches and new museums, police stations and prisons, marinas, ports, high-class restaurants and classy golf clubs will provide an enticing backdrop to the high-tension readings.
Henning Mankell was the first winner of the "European Crime-Writing Prize" (co-project of "Murder on the Hellweg"), which will be presented once again in 2010. Meanwhile, 27 authors from 17 countries will be involved in an exclusive commissioned volume of short crime stories published by Grafit in Dortmund, the most popular publisher of German-language thrillers.
The "Bloody Line", a further co-project of "Murder on the Hellweg", will also create a literary "trail of blood" through the Hellweg region and the Ruhr during the autumn. In parallel to the main programme of events, many towns and cities of the Ruhr and the Hellweg region will hold readings of crime stories on Tuesdays. This series is designed to highlight the region as an important and flourishing location for crime-writing. The Crime University takes place from July to September before the actual festival. Here seminars and conferences will explore the topic of thrillers and crime-writing from an academic perspective.
The festival owes its name to the most famous of all roads named Hellweg, the old military and trading route that runs from Duisburg via Essen, Dortmund and Unna to Paderborn. It is located between the Lippe, Emscher and Ruhr rivers and follows roughly the same route as today's B1 / A40 and A44. The classic Hellweg region is situated between Lünen, Unna and Lippstadt, Hamm and Schwerte. Around 30 local authorities and establishments of the Hellweg region comprise the core of the association that is responsible for organising the festival.
Festival management: Dr. Herbert Knorr / Westfälisches Literaturbüro in Unna e.V., Sigrun Krauß M.A. / Cultural Office Unna
Partner: "Murder on the Hellweg" association of the Hellweg region of culture
You can find further information at:
www.mordamhellweg.de