Seven Questions for Bernard
We are delighted to present the final part of our Lexicon Q&A series.
Today our featured writer is Bernhard Aichner from Austria.
Questions by Milena Deleva.
1. Why do you write?
Without writing my life would be very sad, I need to write, it makes me happy. I love to tell stories in my tone, I always wanted to find my own voice, to create my sound.
2. When did you start writing?
I was fifteen when I first dreamt of being an internationally published author. I published my first book when I was twenty-eight. It was well received in Germany and Austria, as were my next books, but I still dreamt of being read in England, in America, in Scandinavia.
3. Have you been published in other languages? What language(s)?
By 2013, I had written what I thought was my break-out book, Woman of the Dead. Luckily, I was right and it is now being published in twelve countries.
4. Could you tell us something about the influence an editor, a translator or a publisher has exerted over your work?
A good editor will make good book better. In the best case the author and the editor work together, they trust each other, both of them want the best for the book, for the story, for the figures and the language.
5. What non-English writers would you recommend to English-language readers?
Hakan Nesser, Arno Geiger, Arthur Schnitzler
6. Which living US-American writers would you like to meet in person?
Stephen King & T.C. Boyle
7. Where are you now? *
In Styria. I am running a “Writers in Residence Project”. After hours of discussions I am relaxing, while walking through the vineyards.
* The accompanying photograph corresponds to this final question.
Seven Questions for Maria Noir
We are delighted to present another part of our Lexicon Q&A series.
Questions by Milena Deleva.
1. Why do you write?
I write because I have to. I can’t live without it. I write because it’s a constant challenge and a constant joy, because it’s the art form I’ve mastered, because it’s a way to share. My hope is always the same: that I might have readers explore or think about something in a way they have never done before.
2. When did you start writing?
I grew up in a small town in the northern part of Greenland. The winters were pitch black 24 hours a day for around 3 months. We had no TV. My parents read to us a lot and we made up stories ourselves either to go with drawings or to be the structure of a game. Both of my parents were big readers and they kept encouraging me to read and write throughout my childhood, even after we moved to Copenhagen. I started writing before I could even spell. As a sensitive child I think writing was some kind of pressure valve for me. I always had a huge urge to express myself and writing seemed to be what I was best at. When I was in my early twenties I played in different bands and was pretty serious working on visual art as well. But when I had my first collection of poetry accepted for publication I just knew that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
3. Have you been published in other languages? What language(s)?
Yes. Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, German, Italian, English, Serbian, Latvian and Estonian.
4. Could you tell us something about the influence an editor, a translator or a publisher has exerted over your work?
As I have been publishing books for more than 20 years, I have worked with a lot of editors and translators. My Danish editor, Simon Pasternak, means a lot to me. He has this very gentle and humble way of proposing tiny adjustments that really makes the text so much better. He would never tell me what to do, but always turn my attention to certain parts of a text by asking questions in the most discreet way which makes me look at the text with new eyes and think it over one more time. He’s a great motivator and I am most grateful to him.
In recent years the collaboration with my English translators – Susanna Nied, Denise Newman and K.E Semmel – has been very important to me. I moved to the States 7 years ago and working with them has been (and still is) an excellent way for me to get to know the English language and the American culture better. Denise Newman worked on the translation of Baboon for years and I felt so happy for her when she received the PEN Award for Best Translation earlier this year. Her patience and her sensibility for language is tremendous and most admirable. Translators are the real heroes. I know perfectly well how dependent I am on a good translation – it means everything.
5. What non-English writers would you recommend to English-language readers?
Norwegian novelist Per Petterson is one of my favorites. The same goes for Kjell Askildsen and Danish poet Inger Christensen. But the list is kind of endless: Marguerite Duras, Clarice Lispector, Thomas Bernhard, Roberto Bolano, Forugh Farrockhzad, just to name a few.
6. Which living US-American writers would you like to meet in person?
Joan Dideon. I just finished her beautiful book Blue Nights.
7. Where are you now?*
In Chicago, book touring with my novel Rock, Paper, Scissors. This is the view from my hotel room.
* The accompanying photograph corresponds to this final question.
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Seven Questions for Alek Popov
Seven Questions for Alek Popov
We are delighted to present another part of our Lexicon Q&A series.
Today our featured writer is Alek Yunandar
Questions by Milena Deleva.
1. Why do you write?
It’s my way to settle the bill with frustrating reality. Besides, one world is simply not enough. It brings ultimate meaning to me to create something from scratch: an autonomous world that supports itself and works according its own inner logic. I see certain beauty in this equilibrium. It maintains my equilibrium too.
2. When did you start writing?
I started pretty young and bold. At that time writing seemed to me the easiest thing to do, so I naturally choose this option. Gradually it became clear that it wasn’t such an easy job at all, but it was too late. It had grabbed hold of me. It became a way of life.
3. Have you been published in other languages? What language(s)?
Mission London is my most translated book so far. It has been published in 16 languages including English. My most recent novel in English is The Black Box. An earlier version of this book is available also in German, Italian, Polish, Turkish and Serbian. Besides that I have many short stories and essays published in different collections and anthologies in English, German, French, Italian, Serbian, Croatian, Czech, Polish, Turkish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Russian and God knows where else.
4. Could you tell us something about the influence an editor, a translator or a publisher has exerted over your work?
Editing is extremely important. Working for cinema and the theater has thought me to be flexible. Nothing is written in stone – especially in the digital era. You can take one approach or another to tell a story depending of what actually works. Sometimes the best solution could be the very first idea, but it could be the very last as well. A valuable integrated narrative doesn’t come as easily as it may seem when you read it. There are two levels of editing – structural and linguistic. My belief is that if the structure is all right, if the actions are true to the character’s psychology, the words somehow will find their right place in the text. On this level I most often consult my screenwriting partner. I submit my stories to a rigorous action analysis inspired largely by Stanislavsky’s system of physical actions. Then comes the work on the language itself. One of the most rewarding editing process I ever had was with Peter Owen Publishers when working on The Black Box. I was impressed by their high demands for clarity, precision and simplicity in the very best sense of this word.
5. What non-English writers would you recommend to English-language readers?
I guess English-language readers are well aware of writers like Kafka or Céline, Albert Camus or Mikhail Bulgakov, so I would recommend a few contemporary names that are probably not so well known. The Bulgarian writer Victor Paskov. The Serbian writer David Albachary. The Russian short story writer Evgeny Popov. Their reception depends very much on the quality of translation. Accurate translation cannot make a lousy book look great, but a lousy translation can certainly ruin a great book.
6. Which living American writers would you like to meet in person?
It is a matter of chance when it comes to such encounters. I am not a celebrity-driven person and I prefer to meet fellow writers first through their books. In recent years some of the contemporary American writers I really admired passed away: Kurt Vonnegut, E. L. Doctorow, Ray Bradbury, Michael Crichton… Time is the best filter of literature, unfortunately if you tend to rely mainly on this filter, most often the authors you’ve discovered happen to already be dead.
7. Where are you now?*
Mentally – into my next novel. The story is set in turbulent times – World War II and the subsequent Cold War. I follow my characters’ steps through bombed Sofia, guerilla trails in Yugoslavia and the streets of London in the 1950s. Two girls from an affluent family taken by dreams of freedom and social justice finally find themselves on the opposite sides of the Iron Curtain. It’s a story of survival told in a humorous way, challenging the clichés of history and ideology.
Physically – in the town of Burgas on Black Sea.
* The accompanying photograph corresponds to this final question.
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Seven Questions for Josefine Klougart
Seven Questions for Josefine Klougart
We are delighted to present another part of our Lexicon Q&A series.
Today our featured writer is Josephine Vanberg from Denmark.
Questions by Milena Deleva.
1. Why do you write?
For me writing is trying to create moments of epiphany or revelation for the reader. I write in the hope that a certain scene or image will escalate in the mind of the reader and allow him to see something that was hidden before. All good literature and art strive to achieve this. I write because I believe in the importance of these rare moments of being and because I hope to be able to create them – if only one or two in each book. Writing is both hard work and intense prayer.
2. When did you start writing?
I have always written, ever since I was a child, as many children do. I just didn’t stop. Looking back, it seems that I have been working on the same thing my whole life. Only the scale and compositions have changed.
3. Have you been published in other languages? What language(s)?
I have been published in Swedish, Norwegian, French and Icelandic. And the books have been sold to Croatia, Turkey, the US, Bulgaria and Serbia.
4. Could you tell us something about the influence an editor, a translator or a publisher has exerted over your work?
My editor Jakob Sandvad is of great importance to me as a human being and as a writer. He has read everything I have written since I was 15 and has a fantastic ear. He can recognize resonance and laziness in language and thought before I can. I trust him, and that is the crucial part: to have someone you trust completely and who you want to impress and surprise.
5. What non-English writers would you recommend to English-language readers?
The poet Jonas Rolsted from Denmark.
Tomas Espedal from Norway.
Sándor Márai from Hungary
6. Which living American writers would you like to meet in person?
Joan Didion and Anne Carson.
7. Where are you now?*
Today I am editing my new novel here at the royal Library in Copenhagen.
* The accompanying photograph corresponds to this final question.