oksana marafioti

Narratives of immigration and identity formation are never fully told, and they change as we mature. In this episode, Stefanie Schäfer talks to author and activist Oksana Marafioti about her Romani-Armenian-Ukrainian background, her personal American success story, as well as her memoir project "All of Us Fragile and Brave." Touching on the "what" and the "how "of identity assemblage, they also turn to a recent example of the immigration-identity narrative, Nora Krug's "Heimat /Belonging" (2018).

This episode of LadyFiction discusses Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo’s “We Need New Names” (2013), a novel about a young girl who leaves behind her shantytown childhood to pursue her goals in America. The novel meditates on home, trauma, and childhood in a globalized world—and Stefanie Schäfer’s conversation partner is Oksana Marafioti, US-American writer of Armenian and Russian Romani descent and the author of “American Gypsy: A Memoir” (2012).