Ingeborg Bachmann, one of the most significant writers of the 20th century to emerge from Austria, was a cosmopolitan, transnational and rebellious thinker whose work has considerable intellectual reach and political urgency. Her poetry, prose, radio plays and critical writings continue to inspire discussion and analysis. She first came to fame as a poet, and her poems have indeed stood the test of time. They were followed by two volumes of brilliant short stories. Subsequently she embarked on the extensive and unfinished prose project “Todesarten”, of which the novel Malina, a modern classic, was the only part published in her lifetime. The publication of her complete oeuvre is ongoing.
A longstanding translator of her work, Peter Filkins is working on the first English-language biography of Bachmann, which is due to appear later this year, and we are delighted to mark the 100th anniversary of her birth with an exclusive preview. Peter Filkins will be joined by Heinz Bachmann, who will talk about his recent memoir Ingeborg Bachmann. Meine Schwester. Erinnerungen und Bilder, and he and Peter will discuss the challenges and intricacies of writing about her from the different perspectives of a brother and a biographer respectively.
The event will be chaired by Andrea Capovilla, Director of the Ingeborg Bachmann Centre for Austrian Literature and Culture and will conclude with an audience Q&A session.
Peter Filkins is the translator of Ingeborg Bachmann's collected poems, Darkness Spoken (Zephyr Press, 2024, 2nd ed.), as well as The Book of Franza and Requiem for Fanny Goldmann (Northwestern, 1999). Having published H.G. Adler: A Life in Many Worlds, he is currently working on the first biography of Bachmann in English for Yale UP. The recent recipient of a Guggenheim, Fulbright, and NEH Public Scholars Award, he is the Richard B. Fisher Professor of Literature Emeritus at Simon's Rock at Bard College and Visiting Professor Emeritus at Bard College.
Heinz Bachmann is Ingeborg Bachmann’s younger brother by 13 years. After studying geology he specialised in geophysics and worked in oil and gas exploration, mainly in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. After the death of his sister Ingeborg in 1973, he and his sister Isolde were responsible for her literary estate. After retirement from his professional career he devoted himself more intensively to the work of Ingeborg Bachmann and in 2023 published “Ingeborg Bachmann, meine Schwester. Erinnerungen und Bilder”. Heinz Bachmann and his wife Sheila live near Oxford.
