Join us for a reading of select passages of Obexer’s plays in German and English by Maxi Obexer and Neil Blackadder, followed by a conversation about Neil’s translation of Maxi’s plays.

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About the author: Maxi Obexer is a prominent German-language author and playwright whose work examines language, power, and political imagination. Raised in South Tyrol and thus in fact in Italy, and based in Berlin, she has earned numerous accolades, including the Robert-Geisendörfer-Prize, the Eurodram Prize, the Alice Salomon Poetics Prize, and a Bachmann Prize nomination. Her fundamentally feminist writing addresses issues of migration, European identity, feminist politics, and non-human subjecthood. Co-founder of the New Institute for Dramatic Writing and former interim co-president of PEN Center Germany, Obexer has taught at Dartmouth College, Georgetown University, the University of Arts (Universität der Künste) Berlin, and the Literaturinstitut Leipzig. We are honored to have her at UW–Madison as Max Kade Writer in Residence in the fall of 2026.

About the translator: A native of the Lake District area in England, Neil Blackadder is a translator of drama and short fiction, and Professor Emeritus of Theatre at Knox College (1998–2019). He holds a PhD in Comparative Literature and was certified by the American Translator’s Association in 2004. Recipients of NEA (National Endowment of the Arts), PEN, and Howard Foundation grants, his translations include works not only by Maxi Obexer, but also Lukas Bärfuss, Ewald Palmetshofer, and Anne Weber. Blackadder has held residencies at Banff and Princeton, authored Performing Opposition: Modern Theater and the Scandalized Audience (2003), and directed over 15 productions at Knox. Based for years in Chicago before he moved to upstate New York a few years ago, Blackadder serves as Translations Editor for Another Chicago Magazine and is a co-founding member of the Theatre in Translation Network. His short play, Dad’s Guns, was adapted into a 2022 film.