Klaus Ebner facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Klaus Ebner
Klaus Ebner in 2011
Born	(1964-08-08) 8 August 1964 (age 60) Vienna
Occupation	Writer, essayist, poet, translator
Nationality	Austrian
Period	Contemporary
Notable works	Hominid (novel)

Klaus Ebner, born on August 8, 1964, is a writer from Austria. He writes essays, poems, and also translates books. He grew up in Vienna and started writing when he was young.

In the 1980s, he began sending his stories to magazines. After 1989, he also wrote articles and books about computer software. Klaus Ebner writes poetry in German and Catalan languages. He also translates books from French and Catalan into German. He belongs to several writing groups in Austria, like the Grazer Autorenversammlung.

His writings include essays about Catalan culture and stories about Jewish traditions. His first collection of short stories was published in 2007. In 2008, he released a short novel called Hominide. Klaus Ebner has won several awards for his writing. These include the Youth Prize Erster Österreichischer Jugendpreis in 1982 and the Wiener Werkstattpreis in 2007. Critics in Austria, like Wolfgang Ratz, have praised his writing style. Klaus Ebner lives in Vienna with his family.

About Klaus Ebner's Life

Klaus Ebner was born on August 8, 1964, in Vienna, Austria. He spent his childhood there. His mother, Ingeborg, was a hairdresser. His father, Walter, sold home entertainment products. Klaus also has a sister, who was born in 1969. The family moved to a new home a year later.

Klaus went to Secondary School for eight years. He started writing during this time. When he was twelve, he wrote a short play. He practiced it with his friends at school, but they never performed it.

In 1982, Klaus Ebner traveled to Tours, France, for a month. After that, he began studying languages at the University of Vienna. He studied Romance languages, German, and how to translate. At this time, he was already working with a group of writers. He also worked for a literature magazine in Vienna.

After finishing his studies in 1988 and 1989, he worked in different jobs. He was a translator, taught foreign languages, and worked on computer projects. In the 1990s, Ebner wrote articles and books about software and computer networks. Most of these books were in German, but he also wrote some articles in English. In 1999, he spent six weeks in North Carolina. There, he helped write an English book about PC servers.

In 2001, he studied European economics at a university in Vienna. He wrote a paper about Islam in Europe, which was published in Germany. He also wrote several stories about Muslim culture. Some of these stories are "Momentaufnahme" ("Snapshot") and "Flug sechs-zwo-zwo" ("Flight six-two-two"). Klaus Ebner lives in Vienna with his family. He is a member of two Austrian writers' groups. These are the Grazer Autorenversammlung (GAV) and the Österreichischer Schriftstellerverband (ÖSV).

Klaus Ebner's Writings

Since finishing school, Klaus Ebner has written short stories, poems, and radio plays. His work has appeared in many literary and cultural magazines. These include Sterz, a big literary magazine from Styria, Austria. His work also appeared in Lesezirkel, a magazine owned by the Viennese newspaper Wiener Zeitung.

In 1988, he wrote his master's thesis in French. It was about how Catalan countries were shown in French literature. Parts of his Catalan Diary, which had travel notes and thoughts on Catalan culture, were published in 1987. He has also written several essays discussing Catalan culture.

After his first son was born in 1987, Klaus Ebner had more work responsibilities. This meant he wrote less literature for a while. In the 1990s, he focused on his novel Feuers Geraun. Two early parts of this novel were published in the magazine die Rampe. These parts, "Der Schreiber von Aram" (1994) and "Das Gesetz" (1997), are about Jewish and biblical traditions. By 2004, Ebner had only six publications in collections of stories. But between 2005 and 2008, he had seventeen publications.

Ebner also writes novels, short stories, and essays. His poems are in German and Catalan. In 2007, he received money from the Austrian government to write. He used it to go to Andorra to write an essay about the country. He also translated a novel called L'Absent by Catalan author Josep Navarro Santaeulàlia into German. Ebner's essays about Catalan culture, like Barcelona and Andorra, have been published in magazines such as Literatur und Kritik and Zitig. His first collection of short stories, Lose (meaning Destinies), came out in 2007. Out of its 45 stories, 22 had already been printed in newspapers or magazines. In 2008, Ebner published two more books of stories. One of them was the short novel Hominide.

How Klaus Ebner Writes

Klaus Ebner's short stories cover many different topics. Critic Julia Rafael says they deal with real and important social problems. She describes the stories in Lose as "somewhat imploding." She also notes that "phantasms, irony and humor have their place, too." People have said that Ebner's metaphors "go beyond reality without losing ground."

Journalist Paul C. Jezek says Ebner's writing style is very careful and sharp. Each sentence has a special rhythm. His short stories, especially, sound like poetry. Jezek compares Ebner's sentences to "Japanese paintings." He means that "every word has been chosen with special care." Austrian writer Wolfgang Ratz also noticed this. He pointed out "the accurateness of Ebner's speech" and "his love for small details." He also mentioned the strong, sarcastic tone in some of the critical stories.

Awards and Achievements

In 1982, Klaus Ebner won the Youth Prize for Literature. He received it for his short novel Das Brandmal (The Stigma). This book caught the attention of Austrian critic Hans Weigel. Weigel compared Ebner to a famous 19th-century Austrian writer, Ferdinand von Saar. The Stigma tells the story of a young community helper. He meets an older man who seems confused. This man is a Jewish person from Vienna. His confusion comes from his terrible experiences in a concentration camp during World War II. A year later, parts of the novel were published in an Israeli German newspaper, Israel-Nachrichten.

The judges for the Feldkircher Lyrikpreis in 2005 praised Ebner's exact language. They also noted his "consistent work on wording." In 2007, Ebner's poem, "a paperman and sick," was recognized at the International Poetry Prize Nosside. The judges mentioned the "city sadness" in the poem. It describes a "paperman" whose "meal consists of loneliness":

In 2008, Ebner won the Wiener Werkstattpreis for his short story "Der Flügel Last" ("The Wings' Burden"). This story is about a seven-year-old girl who has cancer. Another award-winning essay, "Was blieb vom Weißen Ritter?" ("What Remains of the White Knight?"), explores the medieval novel Tirant lo Blanch. This novel was written by Joanot Martorell from Valencia. Ebner combined his own reading experience with facts about language and history to create this essay.

Awards and Literary Prizes

• 1982 Youth Prize for Literature (Erster Österreichischer Jugendpreis) for the novella Das Brandmal/The Stigma
• 1984 Radio Play Award by the literary magazine Texte (3rd place)
• 1988 Youth Prize for Literature (Erster Österreichischer Jugendpreis) for the novel Nils
• 2004 La Catalana de Lletres 2004, Mention and publication in a collection, Barcelona
• 2005 Feldkircher Lyrikpreis (4th place)
• 2007 International Poetry Prize Nosside, Mention and publication in a collection, Reggio Calabria
• 2007 Travel Subsidy from the Austrian Government
• 2008 Two Subsidies for Literature from the Austrian Government
• 2008 Wiener Werkstattpreis 2007, Vienna
• 2009 Travel Subsidy from the Austrian Government
• 2010 Second Prize of the Short Prose Award "Sprachräume – Schreibwelten" from the Austrian Writers' Association
• 2014 Premi de Poesia Parc Taulí; Catalan Poetry Prize

See also

In Spanish: Klaus Ebner para niños

• List of Austrian writers