Anke Dörsam was born in Berlin, which was divided by the Berlin Wall. A city in an island location, which is why she has been preoccupied with water and crossing borders all her life. Breaks and turns, turns and gaps, differences and paradoxes are the poles between which the energy of her texts arises. If there is a short circuit, there will be sparks. Fortunately, the flood that threatened large parts of North Rhine-Westphalia in the summer of 2021 did not reach the Künstlerdorf, under whose stone floor a brook runs.

In the novel project with the working title „Schwimmbadroman” (Swimming Pool Novel), Anke Dörsam deals with opposites. For example, finding your way in a society that is fluid and yet impermeable at the same time. This is done by means of a character who grew up on the coast. In the tension of the village community between fishermen and farmers, meaning those with property and those with little, she learned to swim at a late age. She opens up new cities by visiting swimming pools. In them she sees a place that is apparently open to everyone, where they meet naked, and yet where the differences emerge.

„The Vechtebad in Schöppingen is, as I have often been assured, a brine bath light.”

„The way home plays a central role in my text, around which all the other places revolve.”