Arnon GrunbergEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

Sulaiman Addonia writes provocative works of fiction that show the multicolored reality of refugees. Stories not just of trauma, but also of love, sex and autonomy. Arnon Grunberg will engage in conversation with Addonia about telling your story on your own terms. ‘I looked towards the West as this amazing free space. Now I look at writers in the global South and envy them: they’re the ones facing imprisonment, but writing without fear,’ said the Eritrean-Ethiopian-British writer Sulaiman Addonia last year in an interview in The Guardian . For his provocative works of fiction he draws inspiration from his own turbulent life. Addonia was born around 1975 in Eritrea, but ended up in a Sudanese refugee camp at the age of three after his father was murdered in the Eritrean War of Independence. He later grew up in Saudi Arabia and came to Europe at the age of fifteen. He has published, among other works, the well-received Silence Is My Mother Tongue (2019) and The Seers (2024), books in which he explores the multicolored reality of refugees by turning them into full-fledged characters, including their erotic desires – The Seers is mostly about the sexual encounters of the protagonist, Hannah. This has disturbed Western editors, but, as Addonia stated: ‘the last thing I’d want to do is to turn my imagination into an oppressive thing.’ Addonia, now based in Belgium, is the founder of the Creative Writing Academy for Refugees & Asylum Seekers in Brussels, where he focusses on helping migrants tell their stories on their own terms. And he is the creator of the Asmara-Addis Literary Festival (In Exile), a nomadic literary festival with pan-African roots, that moves through Europe and addresses genre-bending literature. Programme editor: Veronica Baas In collaboration with Vfonds Zie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Bonnie Honig embodies the public intellectual like few others. With her funny and fine-edged essays analyzing Trump’s shock politics, the significance of Stranger Things ’ popularity, and feminist resources for defending democracy. At the same time, she is one of the world’s foremost democratic theorists, combining sources as diverse as Nietzsche, Arendt, Rousseau, Lars von Trier, 12 Angry Men , Antigone and gothic romance novels in her writings on democracy. One of the major themes of her work is how contestation, rather than consensus, should be central in a democracy. She is a founding thinker of the agonistic democratic movement, driving its inspiration from the ancient Greek culture’s emphasis on the agon , for struggle. In recent work she explores how ‘public things’, like education, national parks and healthcare, are a precondition for democracy – but are often under pressure from privatization and neoliberalism. Tonight, Honig enters into conversation with Arnon Grunberg. They will talk about public things, emergency and shock politics, her feminist interpretations of Hannah Arendt and democracy in disrepair. Bastiaan Rijpkema, who wrote an introduction to the first Dutch translation of one of Honig’s works: Publieke dingen , will introduce the evening. In collaboration with Leiden University. Check out the privacy notice on https://art19.com/privacy and the privacy statement of California on https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info . Zie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .