Since 2019, the European Literature Festival Cologne-Kalk (eLk) has gathered every year on the first weekend of September in Kalk. What began as an exchange between literary practitioners from Cologne and Athens has become an established part of Kalk’s cultural landscape, supported by a growing international network of authors, translators, curators and an audience that becomes more diverse from year to year.

With its eighth edition, eLk is consciously taking another step forward. Under the central theme “Shame”, the festival is leaving its central square structure for the first time and strolling through the neighbourhood: places that are thresholds for some people become places of encounter. Shame is therefore not only discussed, but made tangible in the space itself—as a theme one enters, rather than merely reads about.

Structurally, too, eLk returns to itself in 2026 by changing: for the first time, Integrationshaus e.V. assumes primary responsibility and submits the funding application, while KLiteratur, KUNTS e.V. and parasitenpresse continue the curatorial work. It is a rotating model that places the festival not on individual shoulders, but on many—and finds its sustainability precisely there.

This eighth edition is not a balance sheet. It is a movement: returning to a place in order to see it anew; repeating a promise in order to expand it. What eLk has stood for over the past seven years also applies to its eighth edition—for a Europe of exchange rather than isolation, for literature without admission fees and without pretension, for a shared living room in which languages and origins are not borders, but occasions for encounter. In 2024, we put this foundation into writing for the first time in the eL-k’arta, our commitment to freedom, equality and respect for human and non-human diversity. It follows this editorial.

We hope you enjoy reading, discovering and rediscovering.

The curatorial team of the European Literature Festival Cologne-Kalk #8
together with Integrationshaus e.V. and parasitenpresse

eL-k’arta

Preamble

The makers of eLk are determined, on the basis of shared visions, to share a literary future with many by coming together annually as a festival union in Cologne-Kalk.

Conscious of its philosophical, historical and present-day heritage, the festival union is founded on the indivisible and universal values of human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity. It places people, literature, languages and being together at the centre of its actions by creating, through the festival, a space of freedom, enjoyment and togetherness.

At a local level, eLk contributes to preserving and developing these shared values while respecting the diversity of the cultures, languages and traditions of the people of Europe and beyond. eLk strives to promote balanced and sustainable development and guarantees the free movement of people, literature, languages and voices, as well as freedom of residence on Ottmar-Pohl-Platz.

Hosting eLk entails responsibilities and duties towards fellow human beings, the human community and future generations.

§ 1 Free movement of people, literature, languages and voices, as well as freedom of residence:

The mother of all universal rights is freedom. We need freedom because without freedom we cannot be at home. The right to free speech and publication, the right to (mother) tongues and their cultivation, the right to assembly and organisation, and the right to stay in places and public spaces—all of this means freedom. eLk strives to grant this freedom to everyone within the framework of the festival and to stand up for it, including in relation to public order and immigration authorities.

§ 2 Respect and love for the diversity of people, cultures, languages and traditions:

These human rights are neither a gift nor an act of grace. They are rights that all of us possess and are entitled to, regardless of where we were born. No one can deny us rights, cultures or languages. The European Union seems to believe it must debate whether human rights are negotiable. eLk does not.

§ 3 Equality:

Every eLk being is equal to every other. This applies in particular to the personhood, dignity and freedom of all human and non-human persons.

Protecting these fundamental rights, proclaiming them loudly and repeating them continuously is eLk’s highest goal. We invite you to find, record and propose further rights and articles.