Christian Döring
Germany
Christian Döring, born in Berlin in 1954, is regarded as “one of the most prominent figures in the German publishing industry”, as Der Spiegel aptly puts it. As an editor of contemporary German literature, he shaped the program at Suhrkamp Verlag from 1987 to 1997, then served as head of the literature program at DuMont Verlag, and from 2009 to 2023, he was an editor and, from 2011, also the publisher of Die Andere Bibliothek. Christian Döring is a member of the jury for the Spycher: Leuk Literature Prize, one of his many jury roles.
Authors who work with him describe working on a text with him as delightfully intense and stirring. Kurt Drawert puts it this way in the FAZ: “He was almost always one step ahead of me in my own texts, because he could read them from their conclusion, which I myself did not yet know. […] By being able to anticipate and see the text already at the final point of its self-fulfilment, he is also an author of the author.”
Christian Döring was Peter Weber’s editor when his debut Der Wettermacher was published by Suhrkamp Verlag in 1993. The story of this extraordinary book’s creation and the question of what constitutes the vitality of texts are explored by the two in Leukerbad .
As an editor:
Stefan Gartmann.
31st Leukerbad International Literary Festival:
