Die erfundene Frau. A Bilingual Reading with Daniel Wisser and Ruth Martin

Daniel Wisser is one of Austria’s best-known writers and political and cultural commentators. His collection Die erfundene Frau [The Invented Woman] (forthcoming in March 2022) features twenty-two stories, ranging from very short to medium length, which tell of love, sexuality, as well as gains and losses in various guises and registers, always centred on a female character. This reading will be the first on his latest book tour. Ruth Martin will read from her sample translations of two of the stories.

Born in 1971, Daniel Wisser is a novelist, essayist, poet, lyricist, dramatist and musician. In 1994 he co-founded the band Erstes Wiener Heimorgelorchester, which is still going strong. His first novel, Dopplergasse 8, appeared in 2003. In his politically astute and witty novels Wisser tackles grand themes such as assisted dying (Königin der Berge [Queen of the Mountains], which won the Austrian Book Prize and Johann-Beer Prize for 2018) and the generational rifts in Austrian society and politics (Wir bleiben noch [We are still here], 2021). The forthcoming collection Die erfundene Frau is his third volume of short prose fiction.

Ruth Martin studied English literature before gaining a PhD in German. Since 2010 she has been translating fiction and non-fiction by authors ranging from Joseph Roth and Hannah Arendt to Nino Haratischwili and Volker Weidermann. She has taught translation to undergraduates at Birkbeck College, University of London, and the University of Kent at Canterbury, and was a tutor at the 2021 Bristol Translates summer school. She is also former co-chair of the Society of Authors Translators Association. 

The reading, moderated by Andrea Capovilla (Ingeborg Bachmann Centre) will be held live at the Austrian Cultural Forum, 28 Rutland Gate, London SW7 1PQ.

Attendance is free, however, advance online registration is required. Booking opens on 1 February 2022.