) was published to much acclaim in Germany. The essay collection, edited by Fatma Aydemir and Hengameh Yaghoobifarah, is a manifesto which opposes the idea of “Heimat” – homeland – and an outlet for 14 contemporary authors to comment on how Germany “others” an entire segment of its population.
. This anthology, edited by Nikesh Shukla, explored themes such as race, identity, and immigration in a UK context. An American sequel was published in 2017, edited by Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman.
While much has happened in Germany and the UK since the publication of these two essay collections, the questions and topics addressed by both sets of authors are as pertinent as ever.
, we are bringing together the editors and authors of both anthologies for the first time. The books have always been in dialogue with one another, and now we present an in-person dialogue between
In cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Hamburg (Center for international Cultural Education) and the University of Cambridge.
Short Bios:
© Sibylle Fendt
Fatma Aydemir is a writer and journalist based in Berlin. Both her novels
Ellbogen (
Elbow, 2017) and
Dschinns (
Djinns, 2022) won several literary awards and were adapted as theatre plays. Together with writer Hengameh Yaghoobifarah she co-edited the antifascist essay collection
Your Homeland is our Nightmare.
© Kevin Moyles
Leila Essa is Assistant Professor in Comparative Literature at Utrecht University, where she currently leads a Dutch Research Council project on authorial strategies against exclusionary discourses in Germany and Britain. Literature and its politics are also at the heart of her public writing and speaking. She is a judge for the Kurt-Tucholsky-Prize for politically engaged German-language writing and one of the authors of the recent anthology
anders bleiben (
staying different, edited by Selma Wels, 2023).
© Abi Bansal
Nikesh Shukla is a novelist and screenwriter. He is the author of
Coconut Unlimited (shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award),
Meatspace and the critically acclaimed
The One Who Wrote Destiny. Nikesh is the editor of the bestselling essay collection,
The Good Immigrant, which won the reader's choice at the Books Are My Bag Awards. He co-edited
The Good Immigrant USA with Chimene Suleyman. He is the author of three YA novels,
Run, Riot (shortlisted for a National Book Award),
The Boxer (longlisted for the Carnegie Medal) and
Stand Up. Nikesh was one of Time Magazine’s cultural leaders, Foreign Policy magazine's 100 Global Thinkers and The Bookseller's 100 most influential people in publishing in 2016 and in 2017. He is the co-founder of The Good Literary Agency. Nikesh’s new book,
Brown Baby: A Memoir Of Race, Family And Home was longlisted for the Jhalak Prize. He has also written a book on writing called
Your Story Matters. Nikesh is currently working on a Spider-Man comic book miniseries for Marvel as well as numerous television projects.
© Thomas Eugster
Hengameh Yaghoobifarah is a Berlin-based author and editor. In 2019, they published the essay collection
Your Homeland Is Our Nightmare together with Fatma Aydemir. Their debut novel
Ministerium der Träume came out in 2021. From 2016 to 2022, they wrote the biweekly column
Habibitus for the German daily newspaper
taz, which recently came out as a collection. They work as an editor for the German
Missy Magazine and
Delfi. Magazin für neue Literatur.
Ⓒ Phil Dera
Musa Okwonga is an award-winning author and the co-host of the Stadio football podcast, and he has written seven books. He writes fiction and non-fiction for children and adults on the subjects of politics, sport, race, music and culture. His writing has been published by, among others, The Guardian, British GQ, The Financial Times, The Washington Post and The New York Times. He lives in Berlin.
