Fiston Mwanza Mujila – Poet in Residence
Deutsche Oper Berlin has a poet-in-residence! Fiston Mwanza Mujila is not only writing the libretto for the musical theatre piece Sunville, but also performs on stage and can be seen in a range of other formats.
How can the world be saved? “With poetry!” is Mujila’s emphatic response. Literature is not a refuge for the Congolese-Austrian writer, but rather a sonic and political expression of the presence.
Fiston Mwanza Mujila was born in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1981. He studied Literature and Humanities before leaving Lubumbashi in 2007. Since 2009, Mujila has lived in Graz, where he initially worked as a writer-in-residence before teaching African Literature at university. Graz has since become his second home.
Mujila drew international recognition with his debut novel Tram 83 (2014). The book centres on a fictional nightclub in an African metropolis in the early 21st century. There is something uniquely haptic about the text—it is rhythmic, repetitive, rife with interpolations and enumerations. Mujila spent a long time searching for a publisher and was sometimes asked to adapt the text to European reading habits. He refused. His success ultimately proved him right: Tram 83 was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2015 and won the Etisalat Prize for Literature, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt International Literature Award and the Peter Rosegger Literary Prize among others, and has been adapted for the stage multiple times.
In addition to novels, Mujila writes prose and works for theatre, many of which have won awards. For example, he won the German Preis der Literaturhäuser in 2024 with the reasoning: “The texts are permeated with rhythm and music, and his stage appearances are spectacular. He both reads and lives his texts, screaming, crying, lamenting, whispering or singing.”
He himself compares his writing with songs, saying they are meant to be heard. Mujila wants to liberate the words from the prison of the page and make them come to life. “Writing doesn’t allow me to express everything that I want to. I need the mouth, the recitation, to arrive at something akin to the ultimate description.”
This close association between text and music makes Mujila an ideal voice for contemporary musical theatre. For this reason, Deutsche Oper Berlin has invited him for a residency for the 2026/27 season. He will accompany the opera programme with his writing and regularly provide his own perspective.
Among various other contributions, Mujila will write the libretto for and perform in the musical theatre piece Sunville, shed new light on Othello through a production in an Unlimited Salon, and lead a writing studio with his own expertise. Mujila’s work can also be seen outside of the opera house: He will be part of a performance with Sofia Jernberg at the Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin in September 2026, and will present one of his favourite films as part of a cinema partnership with York Kinos towards the end of the season.
Fiston Mwanza Mujila is enriching the opera house with new linguistic dimensions and global perspectives, turning it into a space for the resonance of the present.
Sunville Performance > 10.9.26
Together with singer and composer Sofia Jernberg, Fiston Mwanza Mujila performs excerpts from the libretto of Sunville as part of the International Literature Festival Berlin at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. The performance is improvised, spontaneous and responsive to the space. A short conversation with both of them follows, covering Afrofuturism, the background of Sunville, and Afro-diasporic art.
As part of the Berlin International Literature Festival
Location: Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Sunville > 25.9.26 – 2.10.26
Survivors of the sea, refugees, exiles, come together on an island. Out of nowhere, they build a new society, without the old rules of origin and power. Can such a thing exist, a community based on love? ... An Afrofuturistic musical theatre piece by Sofia Jernberg, Fiston Mwanza Mujila and Stephanie Thiersch.
Location: Tischlerei
At the Movies > 4.11.26
Unlimited brings opera to the cinema: in one of the auditoriums at delphi Lux, artists we encounter during the opera season will present their secret favourite films, guilty pleasures or cinematic inspirations in the context of opera productions – and introduce them personally.
Location: delphi LUX
Unlimited Salon: Otello > 6.4.27
Fiston Mwanza Mujila will introduce Giuseppe Verdi's Otello from his own perspective with a performance of his own.
Location: Foyer
Atelier > 5.4.27
A writing workshop led by Fiston Mwzanza Mujila.
Location: Foyer
Kasala pour mon Kaku > 9.&11.4.27
Fiston Mwanza Mujila meets the musicians of the BigBand at Jazz & Lyrics. His rhythmically carried lyrics merge with jazz improvisation – a dialogue between Congolese poetry and the Afro-diasporic roots of jazz.
Location: Tischlerei
| The Poet-in-Residence Programme is made possible by the generous support of |
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