patricia duncker

	Walberberg 2007: You cannot be serious!

'I have always been an omnivorous reader. As soon as I could read I began to wolf down books. And I read every kind of text: fiction, biography, poetry, and even military history. I adored spooky religious thrillers with elaborate plots where it was God who had 'dunnit' and there was no body for the detectives to discover. I can even remember the titles: The Footprints of Satan and We would see Jesus. Writing was always linked to reading.

I began writing and reading at the same time. I wrote in the margins of my books. I stuck extra pieces of paper between the pages. I was the reader replying to my writer. It was as if the writer addressed me personally. Not to write back was at the very least bad manners, at worst, a betrayal.'

The Walberberg Seminar is a new place for me – a January moment, frosty woods and lakes, and yet warm with friendship, discussion, argument. I am looking forward to coming back into this new version of the Academy, the place where I have always discussed writing with the people who care about it most – the place where writing matters.
Bis bald!

Patricia Duncker