Fiston Mwanza Mujila writes predominantly in French. Yet his paths take him through several languages and ways of life: born in Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1981, he has lived and worked in Graz for years. On 15 November, he will receive the 2026 Erich Fried Prize at Literaturhaus Wien. The occasion draws attention to a question that can easily become invisible in the German edition of a book: how does a work move from one linguistic sphere to another — and what has to be reinvented along the way?
For Mujila, the answer is not simply a matter of words. In an interview with The White Review, he described translation as a creative process that conveys not only sentences but also ideas, sounds and cultural contexts. He has translated his own texts into German and later also wrote in German. From this perspective, translation is not the subsequent transport of a finished object. It is an encounter with the material in which meanings and tones are examined, questioned and recast.
One novel, many voices
‘Tram 83’ brought Mujila to an international readership. His debut novel, published in French in 2014, appeared in German in 2016, translated by Katharina Meyer and Lena Müller. Its settings and characters unfold through fast-paced, polyphonic storytelling; the novel does not follow a smooth, neutral narrative voice. Rhythm, repetition and abrupt shifts are part of its organising principle. The fact that the German edition credits two translators makes visible work that often disappears behind the author’s name.
In conversation, Mujila has stressed the importance of his translators’ questions: anyone engaging with a text must also ask about its references and origins, rather than simply assuming complete understanding. This offers an important pointer for readers. A translation is neither a mechanical transfer nor a mere smoothing-out. It must decide where an unfamiliar sound should remain, how a play on words works and which ambiguities should be left unresolved. Translators are not invisible service providers here, but co-creators of a new readability.
Sound, performance, public presence
The voice, too, is part of this body of work. Mujila writes poetry, prose and plays, and works as a performer with musicians. The spoken word is not simply an oral version of the printed page: breath, pace and repetition make other qualities of a text audible. Performance opens up another passage — from the written sentence to the voice, from individual reading to collective listening.
The jury of the Erich Fried Prize, represented in 2026 by the writer and publisher Daniela Seel, highlighted the music and the human voice in Mujila’s texts. This chimes with a literature that does not pretend there is only one language suited to experience. French is his principal writing language; alongside it are his engagement with German and his connections to other languages and literary traditions. This is not a simple accumulation of affiliations, but a working through of transitions — and of what cannot be fully conveyed.
No final arrival
‘Tram 83’ was followed by works including the novel ‘Tanz der Teufel’ (The Dance of Devils), published in German in 2022, also in a translation by Meyer and Müller. That same year saw the publication of the poetry collection ‘Kasala für meinen Kaku’ (Kasala for My Kaku), translated into German by Elisabeth Müller. These different forms reveal an author whose work cannot be reduced to the novel and its international visibility.
The prize in Vienna thus honours more than a journey from Lubumbashi to Graz or from French into German. Rather, it signals that literature can emerge and be read in several spaces at once. What arrives in German is neither merely a copy nor a definitive destination. Between original, translation and public performance, a productive space remains — audible in rhythm and voice, legible in the decisions one language makes on behalf of another.
Original reviewed by the editors · 3 November 2026
