Verena Liebers (VIGLi) – Author, Performance Artist, and Biologist

Between Science and Stage: The Literary World of Verena Liebers

Verena Liebers, born on May 31, 1961, in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, combines precise observations from biology with poetic imagination in her artistic development. Since 1990, she has lived and worked in Bochum, conducting research in immunology while simultaneously writing novels, short stories, poetry, and non-fiction books. On stage, she performs under her artistic name VIGLi, transforming texts into scenic experiences that shift between reading, performance, and nuanced stage presence. While she does not have a classical music career, her performances embody rhythm, breath control, and timing akin to good composition.

Her artistic practice oscillates between the precision of natural sciences and literary condensation. Under the label "VIGLis Wanderbühne," she develops scenic readings of her own works: a kind of text theater that works with voice, tempo, pauses, and the acoustics of the space. In this work, composition and arrangement in the literary sense meet performative energy: a concise interplay that challenges the audience emotionally and intellectually.

Biography: From Berlin to Bochum – A Life Dedicated to Language, Science, and Movement

Early childhood in Berlin, years in Munich, and her settling down in Bochum shape Verena Liebers's works. After studying and earning her doctorate in biology in Munich, she conducts research in immunology, with methodology and precision also structuring her prose and poetry. Since 1990, Bochum has been her main residence, where research activities, writing, and performances intertwine. This dual track – laboratory and literature – is not merely a coexistence but a reciprocal inspiration that charges her texts with scientific accuracy and sensual density.

Liebers's artistic development follows clear stages: constructing a diverse discography in a metaphorical sense – a bibliography – consisting of poetry collections, novels, short stories, and literary books on sports and nature experiences. At the same time, she creates scenic readings in which she dynamically interprets the textual score. The voice becomes an instrument, body movement transforms into a choreography of the presentation, and the arrangement of passages creates a dramatically pointed arc.

VIGLis Wanderbühne: Scenic Readings as Performative Literature

With "VIGLis Wanderbühne," Liebers develops her own form of presentation: readings as performative miniatures where phrasing, vocal color, and pauses amplify the semantic nuances. Here, live moments emerge that evoke principles of musical form without being music in the strict sense. The stage becomes a resonance space where prose and poetry ring out, evoke images, and create atmospheres. This stage presence is not an accessory but part of the artistic composition that translates her texts from the page into the space.

In content, VIGLi navigates between nature experiences, movement culture (running and endurance sports), and precise everyday observations. This translates into the reception: readings are described as lively, humorous, and rich in imagery – with a sense of timing and intensity that shapes the dramaturgy of each evening.

Awards and Fellowships: Milestones of a Distinctive Author Career

Individual milestones in her career mark the authority of her work: in 2022, she received the Föhr Literature Prize (in the poetry category), in 2020 the Antho?-Logisch Literature Prize in Fürth, and in 2019 the Wortrandale Literature Prize in Berlin. In 2024, she was awarded a fellowship at the Soltau Artists' Apartment, accompanied by performances and readings. In 2005, she was a fellow at the Garden House on Süderwall in Otterndorf for the first time; in 2025, she returned for a writing period in honor of the city’s anniversary. These stays serve as creative laboratories where new texts are born, rehearsed, and tested in readings.

The repeated invitations document reliability, artistic development, and regional anchoring. Press reports and cultural magazines outline her profile as a versatile writer who combines literature, movement, and nature into a distinctive tone.

Works (Bibliography): Prose, Poetry, and Literary Sports Narratives

The discography in the literary sense – i.e., her bibliography – shows stylistic breadth and thematic coherence. Notable titles include the poetry collection "Wolkenballett," the novels "Klang der Schritte," "Nestel," "Die Beobachterin," and "Das Schattenmädchen," the short story collections "Nebenan" and "Kleine Welt," and the sports-related prose books "Vom Abenteuer 100 km zu laufen" (Fun & Spirit in Endurance Sports), "Läufer sind auch nur Menschen," "Abgelaufen – Zwischen Joggingrunde und Ultralauf," and "Abgetaucht – Anekdoten aus dem Triathlon." With "Trasse ist klasse" (ISBN 978-3-903376-53-3), she expands the focus on local recreation, landscape aesthetics, and micro-adventures right at home.

The text aesthetics of her books work with clear metaphors, precise imagery, and rhythmic sentence structure. Nature motifs serve not as mere backdrops but as semantic carriers that mirror inner processes. This establishes a recognizable "sound color" in her writing, which resonates differently in readings: voice and pauses structure perception, comparable to phrases and cadences of a score.

Style and Poetics: Between Field Research and Fine Tuning

Her artistic development draws from experience: long-distance runs, cycling tours, and swimming stages become field research in motion. This lived musicality of steps – a rhythm of the body – translates into composition and arrangement of texts. In the production of her books, she shows editorial care: thematic arcs, pointed scenes, dialogic condensation. The narrative perspective fluctuates between closeness and distance; descriptions combine topography, weather, scent, and sound into multisensory images.

Historically, her stage form could be situated as part of a tradition of literary performance: from classical author evenings to poetry performances and scenically structured readings. Liebers does not rely on volume but on resonance spaces of imagination. Her performances unfold a subtle dramaturgy that carries the audience through the texts with silence, tempo, and precise articulation.

Cultural Influence and Reception: Literature in Motion

The reception emphasizes the vitality, empathy, and intensity of her readings. Press reports highlight her dual role as a scientist and author; cultural initiatives in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia regularly include her. In literature communities, her poems are praised for their imagery and lightness, while her prose texts are valued for their closeness to everyday life and themes of sporting self-empowerment. This resonance documents a sustainable impact in reading circles, libraries, and local cultural programs.

Her interdisciplinary anchoring – memberships in professional organizations (including the German Society for Immunology, the Free German Authors Association NRW, and the Literary Society Bochum) – strengthens her authority. Her stage presence engages the audience, her texts circulate in reviews and on book community platforms; the frequency of her performances and fellowships attests to a continuous demand.

Current Projects 2024–2025: Fellowships, Readings, Scenic Formats

In 2024, Verena Liebers worked on new texts as part of the fellowship at the Soltau Artists' Apartment, organized readings, and was active in the regional literary scene. In 2025, she returned to Otterndorf for the city's anniversary and documented her writing time in reports that made running and coastal experiences, encounters with the local scene, and progress on her works visible. These entries serve as an ongoing production journal, creating transparency about processes, materials, and artistic decisions.

At the same time, she is refining formats of the "Wanderbühne": scenic readings that immerse the audience. These current projects strengthen her status as a prominent stage author, whose texts gain a second layer of reality in a live setting – a performative extension of the book form.

Context: Literature as a Discipline of the Outdoors

Liebers's work intertwines discipline, endurance, and perception – traits stemming from research and endurance sports – with the sensitivity of poetry and narrative art. This combination positions her as a voice within the German-language literary field that comprehends nature and movement experiences not decoratively but epistemically: as a mode of knowledge. In the arrangement of her texts, one senses breath, pacing, and climaxes – dramatic arcs that recall musical sentence techniques without changing the genre.

Thus, she shapes an aesthetics of being on the way: readers are invited to ponder paths, traverse landscapes, and redraw inner maps. Literature becomes the score of walking, running, and wonder.

Conclusion: Why Experience VIGLi Live?

Verena Liebers’s strength lies in the combination of clear form, lived experience, and performative precision. Her readings generate closeness, rhythm, and fine tension arcs; her books open up spaces that link nature and self-observation. Those who experience VIGLi live encounter literature as a sound and image art – carried by voice, gaze, and timing. These scenic readings expand the reading experience and make the texts physically palpable. Recommendation: Keep an eye on upcoming dates, visit the Wanderbühne – and take the books into the world.

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Verena Liebers