© 2014 Ralf Steinberger
Take a Seat: An Interview with Sharon Dodua Otoo
Having won in the same year the great Austrian writer and poet would have
turned 90, NBG talks to British author Sharon Dodua Otoo about receiving
this year’s Ingeborg Bachmann Prize.
As a British-born writer, what led to you
liebt. Now I am reading Yoko Tawada’s
things more explicit in the text than I originally
places during Stephanie Sargnagel’s reading
others make of my creative thoughts.
piece. Overall though, I enjoyed Julia Wolf’s
What’s the reaction been like to your
writing in German and what are your
Etüden im Schnee. I laughed out loud in
This particular story was an experiment. I had
and I liked the opening of Sylvie Schenk’s
to a German publication about whiteness
‘Walter Nowak bleibt liegen’ the most.
asked if I could write creatively instead. The
Have you also translated German litera-
in German. Originally ‘Herr Gröttrup setzt sich
translation does it give you as someone
current projects?
been asked to write an academic contribution
(a project which was never realised) and I
themes I wanted to explore needed to be told
ture? And what perspective on the act of
intended. I am more than happy to see what
having won the Bachmann Prize?
Really awesome. This award has lifted so
many people up – especially people who are
not normally featured as central characters
in literature. I see it really as a community
who can ‘self-translate’ their own work?
award. I have also received some very
given the feedback that the story needed
at it. I greatly admire people who can do this
person can win a German-language book
chapter. I am now continuing with the novel.
and interpreting professions sees no limits. I
hin’ (‘Herr Gröttrup sits down’) was conceived
of as a short story. But I was consistently
to grow into a novel – so it became the first
Which contemporary German-language
I really dislike translating, I am not so good
and my respect for everyone in the translating
would not like to translate my own writing into
German. For me, each act of reading involves
writers have you been reading? And whose
an interaction between the book and the per-
Bachmann Prize?
Therefore, if I translated my work, I would
Grjasnowa’s Der Russe ist einer, der Birken
change the meaning of the work and make
writing did you most enjoy at this year’s
The last contemporary novel I read was Olga
moving messages – the fact that a British
prize sends a positive signal to counteract
all the bad news going on regarding Brexit.
And in these times when there is so much
angst about migration, it is deeply satisfying
for many that this award has been made to a
son – the reader gives their own interpretation.
person of African descent.
also interpret it again. The risk is that I would
Read our full interview with Sharon Dodua Otoo
on our website.
Women in Translation Month: Ilse Aichinger
With August being
#WITMonth, it
seems fitting to
celebrate a new
translation of
work by the great
Austrian writer
Ilse Aichinger.
Aichinger, who turns 95 this year, is often
called the ‘grande dame’ of Austrian literature:
she has won every major literary prize, and
is celebrated for her complex, poetic style. In
the time was still taboo. Reflecting on her own
experience of anti-Semitism during the war,
it is a striking meditation on fear and death
from a child’s perspective, told using expres-
her first and only novel The Greater Hope
sionistic and mythical elements with the full
trapped in wartime Vienna who wants to join
eagerly awaited new translation of The Greater
Aichinger tells the story of Ellen, a young girl
power of Aichinger’s language on display. An
her Jewish mother in America. She is turned
Hope by Geoff Wilkes is now available from
to the deportation of her friends and remain-
story collection The Bound Man, and Other
away at the consulate, and becomes witness
ing family. First published in German in 1948,
Aichinger’s novel addresses a topic that at
Königshausen & Neumann, and the short
Stories, translated by Eric Mosbacher, was
published earlier this year by Copy Press.
Interview and Information
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