Sofalesungen - Lectures Canap: public readings in private spaces

A female author standing in the middle of a room, surrounded by an audience. Some female listeners have a hand raised.

Project completed

Sofalesungen - Lectures Canap brings literature by young Swiss authors into people’s homes – into private spaces like the common rooms of shared apartments, to courtyards, studios or even garden plots. Changing hosts create an intimate context, waking the interest of new audiences. The Migros Pioneer Fund has paved the way for the Switzerland-wide launch of this initiative that began in Basel. Sofa readings are now held in Basel, Zurich, Bern, Winterthur, Aargau, and central and eastern Switzerland – with the French-language arm Lectures Canap coming on board in 2018 in Geneva, Lausanne, Fribourg, Neuchâtel and La Chaux-de-Fonds. The project plans to expand to Italian-speaking Switzerland in the next few years.

An innovative format

Sofa readings are personal, original and unconventional. They reach a young audience that lies outside established literary circles. The format is experimental in character and takes the familiar setting of author, text, chair and audience to another level. The readings are meeting with a very good reception among guests, hosts and authors aloke.