schooLit 2026: Stella Nyanzi

The feeLit – Heidelberg International Literature Festival will be making its second appearance at halle02 with its authors from July 2 to 5. Our festival venue will be all about books and writing. This year, feeLit will showcase national and international literary stars and bring authors together with their audiences. 

schooLit 2026: Stella Nyanzi 

Stella Nyanzi, born in Uganda in 1974, is a gender studies scholar, anthropologist, feminist, and dissident author. She has been imprisoned twice in high-security prisons for criticizing the presidential couple. In 2020, she received the Oxfam Novib/PEN Award for her first poetry collection, *No Roses from My Mouth*.

In her new poetry collection, Stella Nyanzi reflects on her experiences as a dissident, a refugee, and a mother in exile. In exactly 100 poems, she tells of dispossession, uprooting, and resistance—first as an asylum seeker in Nairobi, now as a writer in exile in Munich.Nyanzi draws parallels between her own childhood as the daughter of refugee parents from Uganda and the experiences of her children today. In powerful language—often with her distinctive “radical rudeness”—she contrasts personal vulnerability with political realities. She describes loneliness in exile, the challenge of cultural adaptation, and a strained long-distance relationship.

Good to Know

• Onlycashless payments(debit card, credit card, contactless) are accepted at our venue:halle02.de/cashless
• Seated event, open seating
• Local organizer: FeeLit – Heidelberg International Literature Festival