Who are Vienna and Austria's most riveting writers to read, and what are they writing about?

This event takes place in the British Library. 

Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth? Both famous Austrian writers, but if you’d like to meet some of Austria’s most famous living writers, to hear what’s happening in contemporary poetry, prose and translation, join us in person for lively discussion and readings, with Daniel Kehlmann (Measuring the World, Tyll), Doron Rabinovici (Elsewhere, The Attitude) and Kaśka Bryla (Red Ape, Ice Divers). 

Along with other leading literary lights, such as Robert Menasse, Elfriede Jelinek, Raphaela Edelbauer, Edmund de Waal, Hella Pick and Misha Glenny, our three guests are all contributors to The Austrian Riveter, the first ever magazine of Austrian literature in English, which we launch on the night. Chaired by Rosie Goldsmith.

Novelist and playwright Kaśka Bryla grew up as the daughter of Polish Immigrants between Vienna and Warsaw. Her play Das verkommene Land was staged in in 2021–22, and Im Herzen der Krähe in Vienna in winter 2023. Her debut novel, Roter Affe (2020) was followed by Die Eistaucher (2022). Her essay in The Austrian Riveter magazine describes her emergence as a gay, immigrant writer into the Austrian mainstream.

Daniel Kehlmann, of both Austrian and German nationality, is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter and translator. His novels, from Measuring The World (2005, 2007 in English) to Tyll (2017, 2020 in English), are all bestsellers and translated into many languages. Kehlmann has collaborated with Tom Stoppard (translating Leopoldstadt into German), Christopher Hampton and Jonathan Franzen.

Doron Rabinovici is an Israeli-Austrian writer, historian and essayist. He was born in Tel Aviv in 1961 and moved to Vienna in 1964. He has been awarded numerous literary prizes, tackling his identity as a Jew born in Israel, living in Vienna and writing in German. He has published several major novels, from Andernorts/Elsewhere to his political satire, Die Einstellung/The Attitude.

Rosie Goldsmith is Director and Founder of the European Literature Network and Editor-in-Chief of The Riveter. She was a BBC broadcaster for 20 years and is today an arts journalist and presenter. She was chair of the judges for the EBRD Literature Prize 2018–2020.

THE AUSTRIAN RIVETER is the first magazine of contemporary Austrian literature and writing about Austria in English. A unique Austrian-British literary collaboration, brought to you by the European Literature Network and the Austrian Cultural Forum, London, from 18th April 2023 it is available free, in print and online on the website of the European Literature Network. Austrian Riveter Magazine cover by Lo Cole.

This event will not be live-streamed.

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