KW x DAAD: Happy Stories, Mostly

22.04.2026 / 19:30 – 22:00
With Maaza Mengiste, Norman Erikson Pasaribu, Souhaib Ayoub, Vanessa Onwuemezi

An evening of readings at Café Bravo, bringing together Berlin-based writers and DAAD fellows Souhaib Ayoub, Maaza Mengiste, Vanessa Onwuemezi, Norman Erikson Pasaribu, and guests.

Drawing on the feeling of an always out-of-reach or near-happiness, the event explores the space of the “almost” through short stories. Unfolding across the evening and punctuated by moments of informal exchange, the readings begin with Indonesian writer of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction Norman Erikson Pasaribu, whose story collection Happy Stories, Mostly, nominated for the International Booker Prize, lends its title to the event. It continues with British writer and poet Vanessa Onwuemezi, author of Dark Neighbourhood (Fitzcarraldo Editions); Lebanese writer, playwright, and journalist Souhaib Ayoub, author of Le loup de la famille (Actes Sud); and Ethiopian-American writer Maaza Mengiste, whose novel The Shadow King was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Together, the readings move across thresholds between belonging and exclusion, intimacy and distance.

This KW x DAAD event is part of an ongoing series co-curated by Liberty Adrien (KW Institute for Contemporary Art) and Mathias Zeiske (DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program).

KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Café Bravo
Auguststraße 69
10117 Berlin-Mitte

In English
Tickets 5 €, available online

In collaboration with

KW’s mission is to engage with the central questions of our time through the production, presentation, and discussion of art. Without a permanent collection, flexibility and openness lie at the heart of what makes KW special.

Under the directorship of Emma Enderby, the current program explores how both the city and KW’s building can serve as a framework for a program centered on artists and their processes, local production, community and partnerships, and the social, technological, and ecological present.