Gianna Molinari and Bernadette Kolonko

Gianna Molinari, born in 1988 in Basel, lives in Zurich. She studied Literary Writing at the Swiss Literary Institute in Biel and Modern German Literature at the University of Lausanne. She is a co-founder of the art activism group Literatur für das, was passiert and the women writers’ collective Rauf. In 2018, her debut novel Hier ist noch alles möglich (Everything Is Still Possible Here) was published by Aufbau Verlag. The novel received the Robert Walser Prize and the Clemens Brentano Prize, and was nominated for both the German Book Prize and the Swiss Book Prize in 2018. Her second novel, Hinter der Hecke die Welt (The World Beyond the Hedge), was published by Aufbau Verlag in 2023.

Bernadette Kolonko (born 1985) is a queer filmmaker and writer. After studying directing in Babelsberg, she began artistic research on feminist perspectives at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). In 2023, she published Unsichtbares und Ungesagtes (The Invisible and the Unspoken), a reflection of this work. She seeks to create accessible cinematic and imaginative spaces, works as a lecturer, curates Diversity Cinema, and is a member of the queer-feminist film collective Lust & Krise. Her short films have been screened internationally, including at the Palm Springs International ShortFest, the Max Ophüls Prize Festival, and the Istituto Svizzero di Roma.

From 2022 to 2024, she completed a Master’s degree in Literary Writing at the Bern Academy of the Arts (HKB), exploring how social origin and labour become inscribed in the body. Bernadette has published essays in, among others, Dears Magazine, Totale, and Revü, and is currently working on her debut novel, Milchmeer (Sea of Milk).