Erotic poems let things slip, schmaltzy hymns go straight to the flushed face, “Will they end up together?”—stories launch into a seventh about-face; cool pick-up lines knock romantic pastoral verses out of the running; confessions of a voyeur sneak their way into a diary. Texts of catastrophe intersect with messages of happiness—and all of it self-written!

Students at UWH took part in the Studium fundamentale “Writing It Yourself” seminar under the guidance of writer Ulrich Land and produced literary texts that set hearts racing, that do not merely accept language as given but shape and hone it, putting it to work in literary exploration. The result included, for example, “speculative” translations of Icelandic love poems, staged adaptations of love stories, and literary echoes of music.

The texts and projects created during the semester will now be presented to the public in the form of a booklet and at a public reading.