I, a transplant // from overseas – W.H. Auden: Kirchstetten – New York
Image: Carmen Osowski
March 21 | 7 PM
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A project in cooperation with the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, the Department of Culture of the Province of Lower Austria and the Archiv der Zeitgenossen, Lower Austria.
Join us for an evening dedicated to the famous Anglo-American poet W.H. Auden and his last phase in Austria, on 21 March at 7 PM at the ACFNY. The event includes a short lecture, a reading, a music performance by the Ruiss-Trio and a panel discussion with Ann Cotten and Edward Mendelson.
About the Event:
W.H. Auden, one of the most famous poets of the 20th century in the English-speaking world, lived in New York from 1939 until 1972. Many New Yorkers know him as the Anglo-American poet and American citizen, but few know of his second home – Kirchstetten in Lower Austria – where he spent the summers for the last 15 years of his life. Auden bought the house in Kirchstetten, Hinterholz 6, in 1957, and when he died in 1973 after a reading in Vienna, he was buried in the Kirchstetten cemetery. Much of Auden’s later work developed during his time in Kirchstetten, and he even dedicated a cycle of poems to his home in Kirchstetten: “Thanksgiving for a Habitat”. After his death, part of his literary legacy remained in Lower Austria and formed the basis of the Lower Austrian Literary Archive. His former house in Kirchstetten remains a museum and was redesigned in 2015 by the government of Lower Austria, retaining the original „cave of making“. Thanks to his legacy, many literary projects have been developed in cooperation between the Department of Culture of the Province of Lower Austria and the archive (now known as the “Archiv der Zeitgenossen“). One of these projects is the idea of having contemporary writers respond poetically to Auden’s poems, specifically from the cycle “Thanksgiving for a Habitat”, which will be transformed into a book and published by the „Literaturedition Niederösterreich“ in September 2024.
About the Participants:
Edward Mendelson (Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University) At Columbia since 1981, Professor Mendelson has also taught at Yale and Harvard. A recipient of American Council of Learned Societies, NEH, and Guggenheim fellowships, he is chiefly interested in 19th-and 20th-century literature, formal and social aspects of poetry and narrative, and biographical criticism. He is the literary executor of the estate of W. H. Auden and the author and editor of several books about Auden’s work. He is continuously in contact with the Literary Archive of Lower Austria will be holding a short lecture about Auden’s phase in Austria. Image Credits: Neil Hanna Photography
Ann Cotten, born in Ames, Iowa, and raised in Austria, is a German-speaking poet. She studied German at the University of Vienna with Wendelin Schmidt Dengler. In 2007, her first poetry collection „Fremdwörterbuchsonnette“ was published by Suhrkamp. Since then, she has published numerous poetry collections and won several awards. Since 2020, she has been working on a PhD project at Peter Szondi Institut at Freie Universität Berlin. She will read poems that poetically correspond to Auden’s cycle „Thanksgiving for a Habitat“. Image Credits: H. Bogenberger
Stephanie Schmiderer hails from Vienna. As an actress she has performed in classical and avant-garde theatre and independent film. She will be reading original poems by W.H. Auden from the cycle „Thanksgiving for a Habitat“. Image Credits: Julia Dragosits
The Reinhold Ruiss Trio presents a tribute to the renowned poet W. H. Auden with great dedication and virtuosity. Ruiss has set 23 of the poet’s poems to music on two recordings, creating an impressive symbiosis of words and music. Together with Arpad Hy (guitar) and Willi Platzer (percussion), Reinhold Ruiss translates the magnificent poetry into stirring music with jazz, blues and bluegrass elements. The musical interpretation is a deeply felt expression of respect for Auden’s work and credibly conveys the close creative connection that Ruiss feels to the poet. Image Credits: Anna Heise