Madgermanes

Birgit Weyhe was born in Munich in 1969. After a childhood in Uganda and Kenya she studied literature and history in Konstanz and Hamburg. Going on to study illustration, she now works as an illustrator and comic artist in Hamburg. Her graphic novels have been nominated for awards in Germany, France and Japan.Priscilla Layne was born in Evanston, IL in 1981 and grew up in Chicago. She received her PhD in German from the University of California at Berkeley, and is now Professor of German and Adjunct Associate Professor of African Diaspora Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Katy Derbyshire is a translator, writer and editor based in Berlin for three decades. She translates contemporary German writers including Judith Hermann, Clemens Meyer and Inka Parei, and co-hosts a monthly translation lab. Her most recent publication is Zsuzsanna Gahse’s Mountainish, published by Prototype and shortlisted for the inaugural John Calder Translation Prize. Katy is the publisher of the V&Q Books imprint.

‘Skilfully linking European-style drawing with African ornaments and allegories, Birgit Weyhe illustrates the contrast and conflicts between German and Mozambican perspectives. […] She also opens up a new view of everyday life in the GDR, consisting of more than just Trabis and grilled chicken.’ Der Tagesspiegel