2011 Festival Neue Literatur
For the second year in a row, Festival Neue Literatur brought six German-language authors – and big crowds – to several readings and events in the New York metro area. The festival took place from February 11 to 13, 2011, and also featured acclaimed US authors Francine Prose and Rivka Galchen.
This year’s German-language participants were: Dorothee Elmiger (Switzerland), Andrea Grill (Austria), Julia Schoch (Germany), Antje Rávic Strubel (Germany), Peter Weber (Switzerland), and Andrea Winkler (Austria).
The festival began on Friday with a translation workshop and discussion at Yale University in New Haven, CT, featuring the German-language authors. The event was attended students from Yale as well as Harvard University.
On Saturday, February 12, authors Andrea Winkler, Andrea Grill, Peter Weber, and Rivka Galchen participated in a reading and discussion of literary influences and the future of the novel at powerHouse Arena Bookstore in DUMBO, Brooklyn.
The first event on Sunday, February 13 was a “Frühschoppen” (brunch) hosted by Deutsches Haus at NYU. Guests enjoyed traditional German fare while listening to readings by all the German-language authors.
That evening, Julia Schoch, Francine Prose, Antje Rávic Strubel and Dorothee Elmiger joined Susan Bernofsky at indie bookstore Idlewild Books for the final event – a reading and discussion about the influence the fall of the Berlin wall had on their work and the gender gap in publishing. Francine Prose read from her upcoming novel, My New American Life, due out in April.
The Festival Neue Literatur was a collaboration between the Austrian Cultural Forum, Deutsches Haus at NYU, the German Book Office, the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Goethe-Institut NY, Pro Helvetia, and the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York. Susan Bernofsky, an acclaimed translator, and Paul North, an assistant professor of Germanic Language and Literature at Yale, curated this year’s program.
A few words about the Austrian participants
Andrea Grill was born in Bad Ischl, Austria, in 1975 and studied in Salzburg before earning her doctorate at the University of Amsterdam with a dissertation on "The Evolution of Butterflies Endemic to Sardinia." Her essays, stories, and poetry have appeared in newspapers and journals. She has published two novels: Tränenlachen (2008) and Zweischritt (2007), both with Otto Müller Verlag, Salzburg. Andrea Grill also translates from Albanian into German. She has lived in Tirana, Cagliari (Sardinia), Neuchatel und Bologna, and today resides in Vienna.
A sample of Andrea Grills's The Beautiful and the Necessary (Das Schöne und das Notwendige, 2010), translated by Susan Bernofsky, is available for download.
Andrea Winkler was born in Freistadt, Austria, in 1972, and studied German Literature and Theater. She has received a number of literary awards, among them the Abraham Woursell Award and the Förderungspreis der Republik Österreich. Her publications include: Schatten(spiele). Poetologische Denkwege zu Friederike Mayröcker (Kovac, 2004), Arme Närrchen. Selbstgespräche (Droschl, 2006), Hanna und ich (Droschl, 2008) and Drei, vier Töne, nicht mehr. Elf Rufe (Zsolnay, 2010). Andrea Winkler has lived in Vienna as a freelance writer since 2006.
A sample of Andrea Winkler's Hanna and I (Hanna und ich, 2008), translated by David Dollenmayer, is available for download. Incidentally, David Dollenmayer was the winner of the 2010 ACF Translation Prize.
Finally, sample translations from all six German-language authors are available here.
For more information please visit www.festivalneueliteratur.org.
Photographs from the translation workshop and discussion at Yale University by Maria-Theresia Svejda (click to enlarge):
Photographs from the reading and discussion at powerHouse Arena Bookstore by Susanne Kirchgasser (click to enlarge):
