Freeman’s N°10 & LAST:
Conclusions
MAGAZINE Launch 04.09.2023 19:00
With John Freeman and guests Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, Lana Bastašić, Michael Salu, and Saskia Vogel
tickets 8€ [ticket] 15€ [ticket & book]
Language The event will take place in English
ACCESS Our space is accessible by wheelchair
Over the course of decade, Freeman’s has featured some of the best writers from around the world, addressing the most pressing concerns, from Olga Tokarczuk on the rights of animals and Valeria Luiselli to the stories of lost children, to Nadifa Mohamed conjuring the life of a man framed for a crime he didn't commit, Lydia Davis on the necessity of learning a new language, to Marlon James on all the ways his mother deserves credit.
Now, in its final issue, this unique literary project ponders all the ways of reaching a fitting conclusion. Featuring new stories by Omar El Akkad, Chinelo Okparanta, and many more, alongside posthumous poems by Denis Johnson and Li Qingzhao, the new and last issue of Freeman’s will be a potent leaping off point for a conversation about endings, conclusions, and what it means to stop in a society reeling from the effects of endless expansion.
We are grateful to join in the closing of the circle with this final launch after we opened with the first at SAVVY in 2015. Come to the SAVVY house for a memorable night of conversation, reading and provocation with contributors Lana Bastašič, Michael Salu, and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, followed by a final post-Freeman's launch dance.
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad is an Iraqi journalist. Born in Baghdad in 1975, he trained as an architect before he was conscripted into Saddam Hussein’s army, which he deserted. Soon after U.S.-led coalition forces took control of Baghdad in April 2003, he began writing for The Guardian. He has won numerous awards, including the British Press Awards’ Foreign Reporter of the Year and two News and Documentary Emmy Awards. A Stranger in Your Own City, his debut nonfiction chronicle of Iraq, was published in 2023. He currently lives in Istanbul.
Lana Bastašić is a Bosnian writer. Her first novel Catch the Rabbit won the 2020 European Literature Prize and has been translated into more than twenty languages. Her last book is Milk Teeth, a collection of short stories. Currently she lives in Berlin as a fellow of the DAAD Artists in Berlin programme.
John Freeman is the founder of Freeman's. His own books include Wind, Trees, a collection of poems, Dictionary of the Undoing, a book length essay, and the anthology There's a Revolution Outside My Love, co-edited with Tracy K Smith. An executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf, he lives in New York City.
Michael Salu is a British-born Nigerian writer, artist, scholar, editor and creative strategist. His written work has appeared in several literary, art and academic publications, and he has exhibited internationally. His book, Red Earth, is forthcoming from Calamari Archive (Press) in October 2023.
Saskia Vogel is the author of Permission (Dialogue Books 2019) and her writing was awarded the awarded the Berlin Senate Endowment for Non-German Literature. She is also the translator of over 20 Swedish-language novels, most recently Johanne Lykke Holm's Strega. In autumn 2022, she was Princeton's Translator in Residence, working on Linnea Axelsson's Sámi epic Aednan, forthcoming with Knopf. She lives in Berlin.