Donderdag 6 november 2025 om 20.00 uur
Dani James | Auteur en vertaalster, New York City
Lezing in het Engels.
Lezing in lokaal R.013, Rodestraat 14, Antwerpen.
Deelname is gratis. Inschrijven per e-mail: ijs@uantwerpen.be.
This lecture presents Return to the Place I Never Left, the extraordinary Holocaust memoir by Belgian survivor Tobias Schiff (1925–1999). Translator Dani James will explore what distinguishes this work within Holocaust literature by survivors and discuss the process of bringing it to Englishspeaking audiences. Originally recorded as an interview for a documentary, Schiff’s testimony evolved into a memoir-in-verse, using a unique sentence structure that compresses devastating events into succinct lines.
James will trace her own journey to the book alongside Schiff’s experiences of deportation, survival through multiple concentration camps, and his decision to return to Auschwitz after liberation. She will discuss the responsibilities and challenges of translating testimony, and why the unconventional literary form of Return to the Place I Never Left resonates with contemporary readers.
Return to the Place I Never Left has become a bestseller at WSU Press and earned acclaim from author Arnon Grunberg, who called it “a truly great work of literature”. The event will include a reading of select passages, allowing the audience to experience Schiff’s voice in both Dutch and English, and a reflection on how translation preserves testimony and expands access while building empathy across generations.
Dani James was born in New York City and grew up in Belgium. She holds a BA in English from Baruch College and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Writer’s Foundry at St. Joseph’s University. Her English translation of Return to the Place I Never Left by Tobias Schiff was published by Wayne State University Press in January 2025 and is currently a publisher bestseller.