Thomas Mann House Events Archive
January 21, 2026
Navid Kermani: In Search of a Common Cause. Conversations Across the U.S.
Info
Together with the Goethe-Institut in North America, the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles convenes an extensive transatlantic lecture tour and series of conversations with the acclaimed German writer Navid Kermani to explore how we can build and maintain solidarity among seemingly opposing identities, groups, and geopolitical alliances.
Navid Kermani, one of Germany’s most acclaimed writers and “among the most thoughtful intellectual voices in German today,” according to the New York Review of Books, recently visited some of the world’s major conflict zones, not as a political analyst, but as a literary observer. Together with various U.S. intellectuals and writers, Kermani will discuss: What does it mean to be a writer in a polarized world marked by war, displacement, and political division? How is the concept of “the West” changing? How might literature, poetry, and religion serve as bridges in fractured societies and foster solidarity? These events bring together acclaimed thinkers from both sides of the Atlantic for a conversation on literature, politics, and spirituality at a moment of profound global change.
Polyphony is the elixir of Kermani's international renown: his encounters with times and worlds, in an age of increasing isolation, defend the idea that the world is more than everything that is the case. They defend the existence of something entirely different—the unexpected, the unheard of, and the supposedly lost. For Kermani's thinking, and this is often overlooked, possesses the power of the pariah, that outsider who has understood that one can use one's own dual belonging to one's advantage, both for oneself and for others.
- Marie Luise Knott, Deutschlandfunk
Navid Kermani has established himself as one of Germany’s foremost public intellectuals. The child of Iranian immigrants, he has spoken of himself as belonging, like Heine or Goethe, to a tradition of German cosmopolitanism, open to the world and critical towards the nation.
- Times Literary Supplement
Conversations
In Search of a Common Cause: A Conversation with Krista Tippett and Navid Kermani
Location: Los Angeles Central Library, Los Angeles
Navid Kermani in conversation with Krista Tippett, author and award–winning host of the renowned podcast On Being.
More information here.
An Evening With Navid Kermani - A Literary Salon
Location: Goethe-Institut Los Angeles
Reading & Discussion: Friederike von Schwerin-High in Conversation with Navid Kermani.
Focusing on his literary works, Navid Kermani offers an intimate reading of excerpts from a selection of his texts in German, accompanied by the English translation, including Das Buch der von Neil Young Getöteten (The Book of Those Killed by Neil Young), Zürich 2002, and Große Liebe | Love Writ Large (2014), among others. English passages from Kemani's works will be presented by actor Moneer Yaqubi. Interweaving readings with thought-provoking discussion, Kermani and von Schwerin-High will explore themes of love, faith, loss, aesthetics, and music as present in Kermani’s diverse body of work.
More information here.
Navid Kermani in conversation with Jaron Lanier
Location: Goethe-Institut San Francisco
A conversation on the intersections of literature, technology, and democracy in contemporary society.
More information here.
Navid Kermani in conversation with Andrea Bajani
Location: Rice University - Kraft Hall, Houston, TX
A conversation on what it means to be a writer in a polarized world and how to build bridges in fractured societies and foster solidarity.
More information here.
Navid Kermani in conversation with Anna Parkinson
The Burden of the Past: The Holocaust, Colonialism, and Today's World
Talk and Community Dinner: A public lecture by Navid Kermani, one of Germany's most acclaimed writers, followed by a conversation and communal meal.
In this lecture in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Navid Kermani, in conversation with German Studies scholar Anna Parkinson, will discuss the status of memory culture in contemporary Germany and its role in a pluralistic society. Afterwards, all are invited to continue the discussion over a vegetarian community dinner by chef Adrian Ricardo Castellano featuring produce sourced from local urban farms.
Location: Goethe-Institut Chicago
More information here.
Navid Kermani in Conversation with Omri Boehm
Location: Goethe-Institut New York
Join the Goethe-Institut New York for a special evening featuring award‑winning German author and public intellectual Navid Kermani in conversation with Omri Boehm, Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy at The New School. These two prominent thinkers will discuss how current global conflict and political division are reshaping public life.
More information here.
Navid Kermani in Conversation with Jeffrey Gedmin
Location: Goethe-Institut Washington
More information here.
Location: Goethe-Institut Boston
More information soon.
Participants
Navid Kermani is an independent German writer living in Cologne. He studied Middle Eastern Studies, Philosophy, and Theater in Cologne, Cairo, and Bonn, where he received the post-doctoral degree (“Habilitation”). For his literary and academic work, he was awarded numerous prices, including the Hannah-Arendt-Prize, the Kleist-Prize, the Joseph-Breitbach-Preis, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Hölderlin-Prize and the Thomas Mann-Prize.
His literary books are published by Carl Hanser Verlag (German) and Seagull Books (English), his academic and non-fictional works by C. H. Beck (German) and Polity Press (English).
Partner
An event series by the Goethe-Institut in North America in cooperation with the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles, and other U.S. partners.
