Five Questions for... Eve Richens

(Image: Langer See, Berlin-Grünau)

The next in our series of interviews with the contributors to Elsewhere brings us into conversation with Eve Richens. Eve not only contributed the fantastic piece Ghosts on the Beach about Arniston Bay, South Africa for Elswhere No. 01 but she also joined us on the makeshift stage at our launch party to read and talk about her writing. Originally from Suffolk, UK, Eve has lived in Berlin, Germany since 2013…

What does home mean to you?

I am not too tied to the idea of home. I love where I live now, I would say home is where my bed linen is. I have always grown up with two homes so the idea of home was diluted for me. England doesn't feel like home though, it used to but now it feels like home when I step off the plane in Berlin.

Where is your favourite place?

My favourite place is probably Krumme Lanke (Berlin) right now, it's deep and cool and you can climb through the fence to get a quieter waterside spot. A close second is the British Museum. Or perhaps Grünau in Berlin… I like Grünau because it feels very alien to Berlin. It's a very fancy place full of big houses and feels a lot like middle class American suburbia. It's all quite creepy until you get to the lake. Also there are lots of accessible abandoned buildings to look at, it is close to where I live, and they have Mandarin Ducks there sometimes, which are my favourite type of duck.

What is beyond your front door?

Beyond my front door is Karl Marx Strasse and the Karl Marx shop which sells plastic things.

What place would you most like to visit?

I'd like to visit friends in Oregon now. I'd like to visit the Ocean anywhere.

What are you reading and watching right now?

I'm reading a lot of theory for essays, a lot of Bakhtin and a lot of Ted Berrigan poems. I'm always only really watching the Simpsons, I can't really watch things with people in, I can't suspend disbelief well. I'm also looking at the single giant tree in my Hof (courtyard) and the windows across the way where my neighbours are using bed sheets to block out the light and children are lining up looking out of the windows, the windows are full of children's faces right now because it's raining and sunny in 10 minute intervals.

You can read Eve’s writing in Elsewhere No.01 available from our online shop here.