Germanic Studies presents

Reading from ‘Ada’s Realm’ with Sharon Dodua Otoo, in conversation with Dr Brangwen Stone, followed by Q&A

Supported by the Goethe Institut

Thursday 30 November 2023, 5–6:30pm AEDT (Sydney time)

Case Study Lecture Theatre 2080, Abercrombie Building (H70), University of Sydney

This event is part of the 2023 German Studies Association of Australia Conference on the theme of “Widerstand/Resistance”, hosted by The University of Sydney

Abstract

Sharon Dodua Otoo is a novelist and a political activist. She writes prose, essays and is editor of the English-language book series “Witnessed” (edition assemblage). Her first novellas “the things i am thinking while smiling politely” and “Synchronicity” were published in 2012 and 2015 respectively by edition assemblage and most recently republished in German translation by S. Fischer Verlag in 2017 (translation by Mirjam Nünning).

Otoo won the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize in 2016 with the text “Herr Gröttrup setzt sich hin.” It was subsequently translated twice into English by Katy Derbyshire, Judith Menzl and Patrick Ploschnitzki and published in 2020 in a bilingual edition by STILL Magazine. Otoo gave the inaugural speech at the 2020 Festival of German Language Literature which was published by Verlag Heyn in the same year. Both texts (the short story and the speech) were republished in 2022 by S. Fischer Verlag.

Otoo’s first novel, “Adas Raum”, is written in German and was published in 2021 by S. Fischer Verlag. The English translation by Jon Cho-Polizzi appeared in Spring 2023 (UK: “Ada’s Realm”; USA: “Adas’s Room”). “Gesammeltes Schweigen” was published in 2022 by Edition Zweifel and is a joint German-language publication with Heinrich Böll.

Otoo is politically active with the registered associations Initiative Black People in Germany, Phoenix, the Coalition for Pluralistic Pubilc Discourse (CPPD) and is associated with the Black queer feminist organisation ADEFRA. In 2022 she curated the Black German Language Literature Festival “Resonances” in cooperation with the Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen.

She has four children and lives in Berlin.

Contact

For more information and RSVP for in-person attendance:
Dr Brangwen Stone (brangwen.stone@sydney.edu.au)

Headshot of Sharon Dodua Otoo: © Fadi Elias In-Haus Media 2022

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