BOOK READING | ANGELIKA REITZER | AMONG OURSELVES
The Austrian Cultural Forum is proud to present an evening with Austrian author Angelika Reitzer. Reitzer will read from her critically acclaimed novel Among Ourselves (unter uns, 2010), which literary critic Daniela Strigl called one of “the best new publications in recent time.” The reading will be followed by a conversation between Angelika Reitzer and Hannah Liko, Deputy Director of the Austrian Cultural Forum.
Among Ourselves is a family saga without a family, told in an exhilaratingly clear and touchingly sober way. It all begins with a family reunion, which is in fact a farewell party: Clarissa’s parents are dropping out – out of their children’s lives as well. Clarissa and the others are all in the prime of their lives, but only sort of and somehow. They are searching for their place in life in ever-changing circumstances, between one project and the next, with little results other than an unstable network of contacts and relationships. Of course, stable family life is also an option for her – in a house that friends have just inherited. She can have a room in the basement, for now, and for as long as she wants to stay. But one day she leaves, drops out, as if she was never involved in her life and the life of those surrounding her.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Angelika Reitzer was born in 1971 in Graz, Austria. She studied German philology in Salzburg and Berlin, and now lives in Vienna as a freelance author of prose, poetry and drama. Her most notable works include the novels Taghelle Gegend (Daylight Region, 2007) and unter uns (Among Ouselves, 2010), a collection of prose titled Frauen in Vasen (Women in Vases, 2008), and the mini-dramas Nichts davon (None of It, 2008) and Tirol-Connection (2009). Her play Ein Kind seiner Zeit (A Child of Its Time, 2010), set to Hieronymus Bosch’s painting Christ Child with a Walking-Frame, was performed in the Museum of Art History (KHM) in Vienna. She was the recipient of the “Hermann Lenz” grant in 2007 and her accolades also include the Reinhard Priessnitz Award (2008), as well as the Marianne von Willemer Prize (2009). Angelika Reitzer is the Spring 2012 writer in residence at Bowling Green State University’s Department of German, Russian and East Asian Languages.
>> For more information, please visit http://angelikareitzer.at
>> http://angelikaexpress.twoday.net
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