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March 26 - Die Nachkommende: An Evening with Ivna Žic and Alta Price
Die Nachkommende: An Evening with Ivna Žic and Alta Price © Alta Price by © Beowulf Sheehan Die Nachkommende © Matthes & Seitz Ivna Žic by © Julien Chavaillaz
Reading by Ivna Žic, the current Pro Helvetia writer-in-residence at Deutsches Haus at NYU, from her acclaimed debut novel Die Nachkommende (Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2019), followed by a conversation between the author and the the literary translator Alta Price
Deutsches Haus at NYU presents a reading by Ivna Žic, the current Pro Helvetia writer-in-residence at Deutsches Haus at NYU, from her acclaimed debut novel Die Nachkommende (Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2019), followed by a conversation between the author and the the literary translator Alta Price, which will focus among other things on writing between languages, family histories across barriers and borders, and the transcendental power of the written word.
About “Die Nachkommende:”
In the dog days of summer, a young woman travels by train from Paris to Croatia, where – as every year – her family awaits her on her grandmother's island. She thinks of the man with whom she had a relationship for a year that never really got off the ground: the man is married. A painter who no longer paints. On the moving train, her dead grandfather sits down next to her. He too was a painter; he too stopped painting. The two absent-present men become her companions on a journey into the past and into memories, from which a family narrative emerges. Her parents' emigration shortly before the war in Croatia was the trigger for a myriad of movements. Leaving, breaking away—it seems to be a recurring family trait that is increasingly called into question. Amidst these geographical and linguistic shifts, in these spaces steeped in history, Ivna Žic's debut novel tells the story of a search that touches both upon the past and the present.
About the speakers:
Ivna Žic was born in Zagreb in 1986 and grew up in Zurich. She studied Applied Theater Studies, Acting Direction and Scenic Writing in Giessen, Hamburg and Graz. Since 2011 she has been working as a freelance author, lecturer and director at the Maxim Gorki Theater, Schauspielhaus Vienna, Lucerne Theater, Schauspiel Essen, Schauspielhaus Zurich, Staatstheater Karlsruhe and elsewhere. Her books include Die Nachkommende (Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2019) and the book of essays Wahrscheinliche Herkünfte (Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2023). Žic has received numerous scholarships and awards for her texts, such as the Anna Seghers-Award in 2020, the Conrad-Ferdinand-Meyer-Preis in 2022, and the Swiss Literature Prize in 2024. She is currently the Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council writer-in-residence at Deutsches Haus at NYU.
Alta L. Price runs a publishing consultancy specialized in literature and nonfiction texts on art, architecture, design, and culture. Price’s work was awarded the 2013 Gutekunst Prize, and has been featured on BBC Radio 4, the European Literature Network, Specimen, Words Without Borders, and elsewhere. Of the more than 40 books Price has translated from Italian and German, novelist Juli Zeh’s New Year was a finalist for both the 2022 PEN America Translation Prize and the Helen & Kurt Wolff Prize. Price’s most recent translations include Mithu Sanyal’s Identitti (Astra House, 2022), Zeh’s About People (World Editions, 2023), Giorgio Agamben’s What I Saw, Heard, Learned… (Seagull Books, 2023), Alberto Giacometti’s selected family letters, Time Passes too Soon (Scheidegger & Spiess, 2024), André Butzer’s Friedrich Hölderlin: The Seasons (Taschen, 2025), and Gesche Würfel’s The Absence and Presence of the Berlin Wall (Distanz, 2025). Price received a 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Translation Fellowship for Maddalena Fingerle’s Lingua madre.
Attendance:
While NYU has ended COVID-19 related restrictions and policies, we continue to remind and recommend to members of the NYU community that they stay up-to-date on their boosters and stay home if they feel sick. Masks are always welcome.
Accessibility:
The first floor of Deutsches Haus at NYU, where our auditorium is located and where a majority of our events take place, can be made wheelchair accessible through the use of our ramp. If you would like for a Deutsches Haus staff member to set up this ramp for you, please call our Front Desk at +1 212-998-8660 upon your arrival. For any other accessibility-related questions or concerns, please email us at dhnyu.frontdesk@gmail.com or call us at +1 212-998-8660.
“Die Nachkommende: An Evening with Ivna Žic and Alta Price” is made possible by the generous support of Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council.
Date and Time: March 26, 2026 from 6 – 8 PM
Location: Deutsches Haus at NYU, 42 Washington Mews, New York, NY 10003