Josef Winkler: 70th Birthday on March 3, 2023

On March 3, 2023, Austrian author Josef Winkler celebrates his 70th birthday.

Winkler was born in Kamering near Paternion, Carinthia, in 1953. From 1973 to 1982, he worked in the administration of the Educational Science College in Klagenfurt (now University of Klagenfurt). At the same time, he organised the literary circle »Literarischer Arbeitskreis« together with Alois Brandstetter and edited the literary magazine Schreibarbeiten. In 1979, he won second place at the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize with his debut novel Menschenkind. Winkler’s works have been translated into various languages and have earned him numerous prizes, including the Georg Büchner Prize (2008), the Vilenica Prize (2021), the Grand Austrian State Prize (2007) and the Alfred Döblin Prize (2001). In 2018, he was shortlisted for the Austrian Book Prize with the novel Laß dich heimgeigen, Vater, oder Den Tod ins Herz mir schreibe.

Suhrkamp Verlag most recently published Winkler’s works Der Stadtschreiber von Kalkutta (2019), inspired by Winkler’s travels to India, and Begib dich auf die Reise oder Drahtzieher der Sonnenstrahlen (2020), a collection of short prose.

We congratulate our author on this joyous occasion.