Literatures in Exile: Najat Abed Alsamad & Taqi Akhlaqi

On the November 12 2024, Syrian writer and gynecologist Najat Abed Alsamad will join Afghan writer and journalist Taqi Akhlaqi for an evening as part of the “Literatures in Exile” series at the Exilmuseum Berlin. The conversation will be moderated by Elisa Primavera-Lévy, editor of the literary journal Sinn & Form.

Najat Abed Alsamad has been living in exile in Germany since 2017. Taqi Akhlaqi was able to migrate with his family in 2021. Both write about their experience of exile and the places they have left behind in very different ways. Taqi Akhlaqi’s memoir of his first residency as a writer at Heinrich-Böll-Haus (Versteh einer die Deutschen, or Try Understanding the Germans) is written in a highly ironic, humorous tone, yet one that does not block out a sense of being torn. Written in a poetic language with a plot that includes several narratives and characters, her prizewinning novel (Kein Wasser stillt ihren Durst, or No Water Quenches Their Thirst) describes the sacrifices and violence experienced by Druze women.

This evening will explore the various styles and languages of exile, reflecting on the deep for those left behind, and the burdensome privilege of having escaped the horror, as expressed expressed in the authors’ work

Guests

Najat Abed Alsamad (*1967 in Suwaida, Syria) is a writer, gynecologist and obstetrician of Syrian origin. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Arabic language and literature from the University of Damascus. Najat Abed Alsamad is the author of several internationally acclaimed novels and collected stories, which have been published in Syria, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates since 1994. Her debut novel Bilad al-Manafi (Nations of Exile) was published by Riyad al-Rayyes (al-Kawkab) in Lebanon in 2010. Najat Abed Alsamad’s articles, studies and research have appeared in numerous Arab newspapers, websites and think tanks. In 2018, she received the Katara Prize for Arabic novels for her novel La Ma’a Yarwiha (No Water Quenches Her Thirst). Najat Abed Alsamad has been living in Germany since 2017.

Taqi Akhlaqi (*1986 in Afghanistan) is a freelance writer and journalist. After living with his family in Iran for a long time, he returned to Afghanistan to study international relations at a private university in Kabul. Akhlaqi has received several awards and accolades for his works of fiction. His debut novel Kabul 1400 (originally written in Farsi/Dari) was published by the Iranian Borj Verlag in 2023. He regularly reports on the situation in Afghanistan for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. In 2021, Akhlaqi was the first Afghan writer receiving a fellowship from the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program. In 2023, he was awarded with the fellowship of the “Weltoffenes Berlin” program from the Berlin Senate and curated an event on contemporary Afghan literature at the 23rd international literature festival berlin. Taqi Akhlaqi has been living in Berlin since September 2021, after the return of the Taliban.

Moderation

Dr. Elisa Primavera-Lévy, born 1976 in Munich, works as editor for Sinn & Form since 2013. She studied literary studies, comparative literature and cultural studies in Berlin and Copenhagen and made a PhD in German studies at the University of Chicago. She wrote various publications on discourses of suffering in German philosophy and literature, aesthetic autonomy and serenity. In 2012 Die Bewahrer der Schmerzen. Figurationen körperlichen Leids in der deutschen Literatur und Kultur 1870–1945 (2nd edition 2024) was published.


This event takes place in cooperation with Literaturhaus Berlin, Stiftung Exilmuseum Berlin, and Sinn & Form.

The “Literatures in Exile” series is sponsored by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.