Diverse ghosts, some long-lasting and tough, are haunting the cultural and literary landscape along the Ruhr. Gerd Herholz tracks them down and follows them in their mental as well as material surroundings. He focuses on the socio-economic damage in the once heavily industrialized metropolitan area, but above all on the devastating temptations of the creative economy.

In his contributions and essays, Herholz mockingly dissects the bloated vocabulary of a cultural industry that – pressed by the pressure of innovation – is all too eager to believe in every grandiose promise of salvation. Thoughtful reading and literature promotion would look different. But instead of diverse mediation work, marketing strategists in the region prefer to follow the pull of elaborate events.

Apart from polemical considerations, the volume gathers encounters, engaged pleas, and critically appreciative portraits of individual authors: for a literature that persistently writes against ghosts.

Gerd Herholz, born in 1952 in Duisburg, is a literature mediator, freelance author, and journalist. Until 2018, he was the scientific director of the Literature Office Ruhr and writes for newspapers, magazines, blogs, and radio. The present volume collects contributions from the years 2011 to 2023.