detheatermaker

Short Stay is an initiative where Resonants can offer makers a short residency so they can get to know the workings of the theatre maker.

Meet Aya Sabi who was part of our wpZimmer summer residency in August.

Aya Sabi (she/her, 1995) lives in Flanders and studies Arabistics and Islamology at KU Leuven.

She is a columnist for De Morgen and in 2017 published the collection of stories Verkruimeld land, published by Atlas Contact. In 2020, she was voted one of the literary talents of the year by NRC Handelsblad. In 2022, her debut novel Half leven was published by Das Mag. She won the PrixFintro Publieksprijs 2023 with Half leven and was shortlisted for the Confituur Boekhandelsprijs 2023, the Hebban Debuutprijs 2023 and the Opzij Literatuurprijs 2023. The novella Juli, part of a series by Das Mag, was published in 2023. In April 2024, Aya Sabi won an Ultima for Emerging Talent and in May 2024 the Young Spring 2024. Babs Gons, laureate of the Golden Feather 2024, chose Aya Sabi because she is ‘an important and much-needed voice, both within the arts and in the social debate’.

During this residency, she comes to work on the performative sequel to her debut novel, Half Leven, asking, ‘Is one life enough to be whole again?’