Fatma Aydemir, “Dschinns (English: Djinns)”

Co-sponsored by the Center for German and European Studies and GNS+.

Join us for a reading in German and English by Fatma Aydemir and Jon Cho-Polizzi, followed by a conversation about Jon’s translation of Fatma’s novel “Dschinns” (English: Djinns).

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“ came out in 2017 and was adapted as a movie in 2024. Her second novel „Djinns“ won several literary awards and was translated into English by Jon Cho-Polizzi for University of Wisconsin Press in 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 University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. His research focuses on the intersections of translation, migration, and multilingualism in Berlin’s contemporary literary scene. His translation work has appeared in numerous journals, exhibitions, and anthologies, and his book-length translations include Sharon Dodua Otoo’s Ada’s Room, Max Czollek’s De-Integrate: A Jewish Survival Guide for the 21st Century, and Fatma Aydemir’s Djinns.