Berlin Babel. Stories of the city by Berliners old and new

When: September 22, 2026 - 19.30

Jane Yager (US) and Carla Berges (ES) read from their stories published in Berlin Babel, an anthology edited by the translator and writer Katy Derbyshire. Snap up a copy before they sell out!

About Berlin Babel

What brings people to today’s Berlin, what makes them stay? For some, the city is a place of refuge, from war and persecution, bigotry or boredom. For others, it’s the history or the nightlife or the broad green spaces that attract them — or haunt them. And a few are just born here. How do they cope with the pressure, with housing shortages, racism, club queues, bicycle thefts, shitty jobs, with home catching up on them?

Berlin Babel presents fourteen short stories by writers originating from Syria, Turkey, China, the UK, the US, the Netherlands, Spain, Russia, Germany, Italy and India. From Arabic to Italian to Yiddish, the stories are beautifully translated from eight different languages.

About

Jane Yager is a California-born writer and translator who has lived in Berlin since 2005. Her short fiction won the Fractured Lit 2025 Elsewhere Prize and has recently appeared in the Los Angeles Review, Necessary Fiction, Gooseberry Pie and the Ekphrastic Review. Her criticism has featured in the Paris Review Daily, the TLS and Literary Review. She is currently learning Polish.

Carla Berges, born in Valencia, Spain, is an architect and set designer. She has lived in Berlin for ten years, working in theatres as an assistant and set designer. Currently, she works as a project manager for opera and ballet in Berlin, where she coordinates scenography construction. She began writing short stories some years ago, to write what she can’t draw.