On March 26, 2013, two top journalists met at Literaturhaus Berlin: Writer Sviatlana Kurs from Beloruss and Dr. Manfred Sapper, editor-in-chief of the magazine „Osteuropa“. They discussed current political developments in Eastern Europe including their societal and historic ramifications. Sviatlana Kurs and Olga Radetzkaya read excerpts from the short stories Der Besuch des Archivars (The Archivist’s Visit) and Das Fest kehrt wieder (The Fest Returns) in Belorussian and German.

Sviatlana Kurs started her career with the state-run Belorussian radio, but was let go after reporting critically on the national poll on national symbolism and the state of the Belorussian language. From 1994 to 2006, she worked as free-lance journalist for the papers Swaboda and Nascha Niwa, as well as for the radio stations Ratsyja and Radio Free Europe. She collaborated with the Helsinki based comittee Belarus editing their publication. Since 2008, Ms. Kurs has been working for Euroradio Belarus in Poland. She lives in Warsaw.

In April 2013 Sviatlana Kurs will start her 9-month Feuchtwanger Fellowship at Villa Aurora.