Selma Kay Matter

Writer, performance artist – Berlin, Germany
Participant International Forum 2024

Author and performance artist Selma Kay Matter [dey/they] was born in Zurich. They studied creative writing for the stage at the Berlin University of the Arts as well as literature, theatre and philosophy at Universität Hildesheim. Selma Kay Matter’s work has so far has been focussing on climate, bodies, illness and queerness. 
Most recently, the play “Alias Anastasius”, which they created as a duo with Marie Lucienne Verse, had its world premiere at Berliner Ensemble. For “Grelle Tage”, Selma Kay Matter received several awards, including the 2023 NESTROY-Theatre Prize in the category as “Best Emerging Artist”. In the same year, the play was published in the book series Suhrkamp Theater. 
Besides writing, Selma Kay Matter also performs, for instance as part of the half-improvised performance “You’ll never walk alone, dyke”” with Duygu Ağal, Lynn Musiol and Evan Tepest at the event series “Dyke Dogs” at Berliner Schaubühne (2023). Currently, Selma Kay Matter is working on a genre-bending non-fiction text on the overlapping of queerness and chronic illness, which will be published as a hardcover book by Hanser Berlin in the autumn of 2024.