Incentives - New Literature from Austria

readme.cc provides multilingual access to the latest Austrian literature. In collaboration with the Literaturhaus in Vienna the reading forum offers the latest insights about literature published in Austria.

Literary journalists and researchers introduce current new publications; reading samples allow for a closer look at the texts; short portraits of the authors complement the picture.

The range of information is currently available in five languages: German, English, French, Czech and Hungarian.

The Project "Incentives" targets at the internationalization of Austrian literature, respectively the translation of current texts.

Project realization: the Office of Documentation of Contemporary Austrian Literature (reviews, author’s portraits) – The Association of Translators (translations) – readme.cc (infrastructure).

http://www.literaturhaus.at

[ book tip by Beat Mazenauer ] The rivers and waterways absorb all the water, just as all words are absorbed and intermingle with language. Ferdinand Schmatz’s new poems qualify for this analogy because the water’s flow from its sources is translated into polyphonic poetry – in the middle of the Danube.

Individual motifs are repeated in tonal and meaning assonances – a constant undulation and gurgling of words set in. The power of the Danube’s current has coagulated here - in "donaupalast, gestiftet" - into stone monuments, “to the pageant of the benefactor, the thunder”. Marble and “wall purple” define the magnificent architectures of the churches and castles. The bells drone and the language imitates them: “listen, / something is chiming down here”! Ultimately, we stand open-mouthed – in amazement, in excitement.

[ book info ] Schmatz, Ferdinand: Quellen. Gedichte. (original language: Deutsch) Haymon, Innsbruck, 2010 .