A bestselling novel short-listed for the German Book Prize, Fatma Aydemir's 2022 Dschinns is one of the definitive works of contemporary German literature. Now translated into almost a dozen languages, the novel is beginning to transform expectations around German literature in its global reception, as well. From its seething critique of Germany's celebrated cultural memory and "welcoming culture," to its insistence on deconstructing preconceptions about Germany's many immigrant communities, Dschinns is no stranger to controversy. But Dschinns is also a touching family saga, too, following the lives of three generations of the Yılmaz family and their eventual migration from Kurdistan, via Istanbul, to Germany: an exploration of the words, silences, ambitions, secrets, and fears that unite and divide a family. Please join Professors Claudia Breger and Susan Bernofsky for a conversation with author Fatma Aydemir and Djinn's English-language translator Jon Cho-Polizzi.

About the Speakers

Fatma Aydemir is a writer and journalist based in Berlin. She is a co-founder and editor of the German literary magazine Delfi. Her debut novel Ellbogen [Ellbow] came out in 2017 and was adapted as a movie in 2023. Her second novel Djinns won several literary awards in Germany and will come out in English in Fall 2024. Together with Hengameh Yaghoobifarah, she published the essay collection Your Homeland Is Our Nightmare. Aydemir is a Guardian columnist and rewrote Goethe‘s classic theatre play Faust from a feminist perspective for Schauspiel Essen.

Jon Cho-Polizzi is a literary translator and Assistant Professor of German at the University of Michigan. He received his PhD from UC Berkeley in 2020 after studying literature, history, and translation in Santa Cruz and Heidelberg. His work concentrates on the contemporary German literary scene. In addition to Fatma Aydemir's Djinns, his recent literary translations include Sharon Dodua Otoo's Ada's Room and Max Czollek's De-Integrate: A Jewish Survival Guide for the 21st Century. Jon lives and works between Michigan, California, and Berlin.