Servus! My name is Tara Williams, and I have recently graduated from the University of Oxford with my undergraduate degree in German.
During my year studying in Bamberg, Germany, I received funding from the LIDL Year Abroad Project Prize to complete a creative project. In order to combine my love for both creative writing and digital art, I decided to write and illustrate an anthology of poetry during the latter months of the 2023-24 academic year. My inspiration for the anthology’s subject matter was twofold; I combined my individual experience of living abroad in Bamberg with various thematic devices taken from two works by E.T.A. Hoffmann, a renowned German author who lived in Bamberg during the 1800s. I aimed to track the progression of my study abroad year through the creation of a series of poems, dividing the anthology into two sections to correspond with the two Hoffmann works which served as my inspiration. The first section, drawing upon the uncanny discomfort depicted by Hoffmann in ‘Der Sandmann’ (‘The Sandman’), detailed the uneasy atmosphere that I felt surrounding the beginning stages of my time abroad, where the gravity of being left alone in another country for the first time was very apparent to me. The second section, drawing upon the whimsical, fantastically beautiful imagery found in Hoffmann’s ‘Der goldne Topf’ (‘The Golden Pot’), is where I depict the joyous aspects of the year and, ultimately, where I explore the emotional complexities of returning to my home country after living elsewhere for so long.
Upon returning to Oxford for the final year of my degree, I was given the opportunity to extend the project by publishing it as part of the Taylor Institution’s ‘Writers in Residence’ series. I consequently spent the first half of the 2024-25 academic year preparing the anthology for publication, helped considerably by the guidance of Henrike Lähnemann. Although balancing this project alongside my studies was certainly challenging at times – as I simultaneously needed to write two extended coursework pieces and prepare for my upcoming final examinations – I was able to complete the project during Hilary Term 2025. Furthermore, the LIDL Prize also enabled the funding of a book launch event and a print run of the anthology. During the launch event, I spoke in front of an audience in St Edmund Hall’s Old Library about my creative process before participating in an interactive Q&A session to conclude the occasion. The anthology is still available to purchase from multiple online retailers, or to view online on the faculty’s ‘History of the Book’ site.
Now, two years on from my time in Bamberg, I have been awarded a prize from the Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg (where I spent my year abroad studying) on account of the publication of my anthology and the completion of my undergraduate degree. The DAAD-Preis für hervorragende Leistungen internationaler Studierender an den deutschen Hochschulen (the DAAD Prize for Outstanding Achievements of International Students at German Universities) celebrates the contributions made by international students to their field of study, and I am honoured to have been recognised in such a way.
I would like to extend my thanks to everyone who has helped me in this endeavour, and in particular to Henrike Lähnemann for all her help and support during the publishing process.
I never could have foreseen how far this project has progressed over time, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds!
