Writing and Working

Reading and Discussion that I think is part of International Women's Day.

Thursday 10 March 2011, 6pm
Goethe-Institut, 37 Merrion Square, Dublin 2
in German and English
Admission free

Three novelists, Siobhan Parkinson, Rachel van Kooij and Olga Flor, will talk about their experience of not only being a writer but of pursuing other careers as well – such as physicist, special needs therapist and publisher. The influence of these activities on the women’ writing and the difference between the Austrian and Irish literary landscape will also be a focus of discussion.

Olga FLOR is a Viennese-born novelist who has lived in Vienna, Cologne and Graz. She studied Physics and has worked in multimedia; her first novel „Erlkönig“ was published 2002, the second novel called „Talschluss“ in 2005 and her third novel „Kollateralschaden“ was nominated for the German Book Price in 2008.

Rachel van KOOIJ was born in Wageningen, The Netherlands and moved to Austria at the age of 10. She studied educational science and special needs therapy and works in an institution for adults with mental disabilities. She has published seven books for children and teenagers and most of them have been awarded prizes. Her books have been translated into several languages (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Italian and Dutch). For her book “Klaras Kiste” teaching materials have been provided to German teachers in Secondary schools all across Ireland in this school year.

Siobhán PARKINSON is a novelist and one of Ireland‘s best known writers for children. She has about 20 books in print, a bagful of awards and nominations and her books have been translated into Danish, German, French, Italian, Russian, Latvian, Japanese, for instance. As well as being a writer she has been both the editor and the publisher of a new children‘s programme called „Little Island“, which brought out its first batch of books in March 2010.

Johanna ÖTTL is the Austrian lecturer at Trinity College Dublin.

Presented by the Austrian Embassy Dublin
Supported by the Goethe-Institut Irland

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