Klaus Ebner

**Klaus Ebner** (born August 8, 1964) is an Austrian writer of short stories, essays and poetry, and a translator. Born and raised in Vienna, he began writing at an early age. He started sending in stories to magazines in the 1980s, and also published articles and books about computer software after 1989. Ebner's poetry is written in German and Catalan. He is a member of several Austrian writers associations, including the Grazer Autorenversammlung.

His works include cultural essays on Catalan topics, and stories about Jewish traditions. His first book of short stories was printed in 2007. In 2008, Ebner published the short novel _Hominide_. He has gotten several literary prizes, among them the Viennese _Wiener Werkstattpreis_ in 2007. Austrian critics, such as Wolfgang Ratz, have praised Ebner's prose-style. The writer lives in Vienna with his family.

## Biography

In the 1980s, he studied Romance languages, German and Translation at the University of Vienna. He also worked for a literary group and a magazine for literature in Vienna. Afterwards he worked as a translator, language teacher and IT project manager. In the 1990s, he published articles and books about software and computer networks; these books were in German, but he also wrote articles in English. In 2001 he wrote a university paper about islamism in Europe, which has been published later in Germany.

After school, Klaus Ebner has begun to write short stories, poetry and radio dramas. He usually published them in magazines of literature and culture. After the year 2004, he published literary texts much more often. Today, Klaus Ebner is an author of fiction (novels, short stories), essays and poems. He writes poetry in German and Catalan. Supported by the Austrian government, he went to Andorra in 2007 and wrote an essay about the country in the Pyrenees.

In 2007, Ebner's poem "a paperman and sick" became one of the Mentioned Poems at the International Poetry Prize Nosside. The jury spoke about the "sadness in big cities", which would be represented in the poem by a _paperman_ whose "meal consists of loneliness". The English translation of the poem goes as follows:

|English (by the author)|Explanatory Simple English|
| --- | --- |
|_a paperman and sick_ _forlorn in drunkenness_ _the wheels are blocking_ _clumsily_ _his meal consists of loneliness_ _its garnish_ _is the yearning for the past_ _beguiled by shouts of thunder_ _hope_ _that long ago_ _has died_|_a man of papers who is sick_ _he is forgotten in drunkenness_ _his wheels are blocking_ _in an uncoordinated way_ _his eating is loneliness_ _together with_ _the wish to see the times already passed_ _he is confused by loud shouts_ _hope_ _that a long time ago_ _has died_|

In 2008 Klaus Ebner got the Wiener Werkstattpreis of 2007. The winning short story _Der Flügel Last (The Burden of the Wings)_ shows a seven-year-old girl who has cancer. The story is told as if the girl would tell it herself. In the winning essay _Was blieb vom Weißen Ritter? (What do we still have of the White Knight?)_, the reader learns about the novel from the Middle Ages _Tirant lo Blanch_ by Joanot Martorell from Valencia. The author mixed his own reading experience with information from history and literature.

Klaus Ebner is a member of the Austrian Writers' Associations _Grazer Autorenversammlung (GAV)_ and _Österreichischer Schriftstellerverband (ÖSV)_.

## Style of writing

Ebner's short stories have many different topics, which, as critic Julia Rafael says, include actual and socially relevant problems. She describes the stories included in the anthology _Lose_ as "somewhat imploding" and says that "phantasms, irony and humor have their place, too". Ebner's metaphors have been described as "going beyond reality without losing ground". The journalist Paul C. Jezek said, Ebner's writing style is characterized by very carefully chosen wording. Each sentence has a melody; his short prose especially sounds lyrical. Jezek compares Ebner's sentences to "Japanese paintings – every word has been chosen with special care". Austrian writer and critic Wolfgang Ratz made a similar observation, underlining "the accurateness of Ebner's speech" and "his love for formal details", while pinpointing the sarcastic undertone of the critical stories.

## Literary Prizes

- 2009 Travel Subsidy by the Austrian Government
- 2008 Two Subsidies for Literature by the Austrian Government
- 2008 Wiener Werkstattpreis 2007, Vienna
- 2007 Travel Subsidy by the Austrian Government
- 2007 Premio Internazionale di Poesia Nosside, Mention and publication in the anthology, Reggio Calabria
- 2005 Feldkircher Lyrikpreis (4th)
- 2004 La Catalana de Lletres 2004, Mention and publication in the anthology, Barcelona
- 1988 Erster Österreichischer Jugendpreis (Youth Prize for Literature) for the novel _Nils_
- 1984 Radio Play Award by the literary magazine Texte (3rd)
- 1982 Erster Österreichischer Jugendpreis (Youth Prize for Literature) for the novella _Das Brandmal/The Stigma_

## Books

- _Vermells/Shades of Red_, poetry (in Catalan), SetzeVents Editorial, Urús 2009,
- _Hominide/Hominid_; short novel (in German), FZA Verlag, Vienna 2008,
- _Auf der Kippe/On the brink_; short stories (in German), Arovell Verlag, Gosau 2008,
- _Lose/Destinies_; short stories (in German), Edition Nove, Neckenmarkt 2007,

## Publications in anthologies (examples)

- _/Dreams_; short stories (in German), in: Junge Literatur aus Österreich 85/86, Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1986,
- _/Coming Home_; short story (in German), in: Ohnmacht Kind, Boesskraut & Bernardi, Vienna 1994,
- _/Iceland_; poem (in German), in: Vom Wort zum Buch, Edition Doppelpunkt, Vienna 1997,
- _/Departure_; short story (in German), in: Gedanken-Brücken, Edition Doppelpunkt, Vienna 2000,
- _/The Reason of All This_; poem (in Catalan), in: La Catalana de Lletres 2004, Cossetània Edicions, Barcelona 2005,
- _/The Burial_; short story (in German), in: Kaleidoskop, Edition Atelier, Vienna 2005,
- _/Wine Degustation_; short story (in German), in: Das Mädchen aus dem Wald, Lerato-Verlag, Oschersleben (FRG) 2006,
- _/Routined_; short story (in German), in: Sexlibris, Schreiblust Verlag, Dortmund (FRG) 2007,
- _/The City and the Sea_; essay (in German), in: Reisenotizen, FAZ Verlag, Vienna 2007,

## Notes

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## Other websites

- Author's Information Website (mostly in German and Catalan, but with some literary text examples translated to English)
- Biography, Austrian Writer's Association Grazer Autorenversammlung
- Author page from publisher Schreiblust, Germany
- _Wing father_, English translation of a poem
- _Glimpses on a novel_, English text
- _Reflektor_, German story (in: Schreibkraft 13)
- _Selbsterklärend_, German story (in: Schreibkraft 15)