Nadia Owusu

Tanzania, Ethiopia, Italy, Uganda, England. Nadia grew up in many countries due to the changing places of work of her father, a Ghanaian UN employee. Each time a new language, a new home and new questions about identity. When Nadia was two years old, her mother left the family – when she was 13, her father died. As a young woman, Nadia moves to New York alone. She feels homeless and frightened – and begins to piece together the fragments of her identity by writing. The consequences of war, genocide and colonialism are deeply engraved in her memories of childhood and family history.

Nadia Owusu, born in 1981, is a Ghanaian-Armenian-American writer and urban planner. Her book Aftershocks (2021) was named one of the best books of 2021 by Time Magazine, The Guardian and Barack Obama, among others. She writes for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, among others.

Language: English

In cooperation with the Literaturherbst Heidelberg