Christoph Ransmayr

File:Porträt Christoph Ransmayr Foto Johannes Cizek 14 5KB.jpg

Christoph Ransmayr
(photo by Johannes Cizek)

Christoph Ransmayr (born 20 March 1954) is an Austrian writer.

Life

Born in Wels, Upper Austria Ransmayr grew up in Roitham near Gmunden and the Traunsee. From 1972 to 1978 he studied philosophy and ethnology in Vienna. He worked there as cultural editor for the newspaper Extrablatt from 1978 to 1982, also publishing articles and essays in GEO, TransAtlantik and Merian. After his novel Die letzte Welt was published in 1988 he did extensive traveling in Ireland, Asia, North and South America. In 1994 he moved to West Cork, Ireland, as a friend offered to lease him a splendid house on the Atlantic coast for a very affordable rent. In 1997 Ransmayr read his short story Die dritte Luft oder Eine Bühne am Meer, written for this occasion, as a keynote speech for the Salzburg Festival. After his marriage in the Spring of 2006 Ransmayr returned to live in Vienna.

In 2018 he received the Nicolas Born Prize for his literary works to date.

Awards

• 1986-1988 Elias Canetti Fellowship, see also Elias Canetti
• 1988 Anton Wildgans Prize
• 1992 Großer Literaturpreis der Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste
• 1995 Franz-Kafka-Preis, see also Franz Kafka
• 1995 Franz-Nabl-Preis
• 1996 Aristeion Prize for the novel Morbus Kitahara
• 1997 Solothurner Literaturpreis
• 1997 Kulturpreis des Landes Oberösterreich
• 1998 Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis, see also Friedrich Hölderlin
• 2001 Nestroy-Theaterpreis, see also Johann Nestroy
• 2004 Bertolt-Brecht-Literaturpreis
• 2004 Großer Österreichischer Staatspreis für Literatur
• 2010 28° Preis Gambrinus "Giuseppe Mazzotti"
• 2013 Donauland Sachbuchpreis
• 2013 Ernst-Toller-Preis
• 2013 Brothers Grimm Prize of the City of Hanau for Atlas of an Anxious Man
• 2014 Fontane-Preis für Literatur der Stadt Neuruppin for Atlas of an Anxious Man
• 2015 Prix Jean Monnet de Littérature Européenne for Atlas of an Anxious Man
• 2015 Prix du Meilleur livre étranger for Atlas of an Anxious Man
• 2018 Nicolas Born Prize for his literary works to date
• 2018 Kleist Prize

Works

• Strahlender Untergang, together with Willy Puchner, 1982, ISBN 3-85447-006-1
• Die Schrecken des Eises und der Finsternis, 1984, ISBN 3-85447-043-6
• Die letzte Welt, 1988, ISBN 3-89190-244-1
• Morbus Kitahara, 1995, ISBN 3-10-062908-6
• Der Weg nach Surabaya, 1997, ISBN 3-10-062916-7
• Die dritte Luft, oder Eine Bühne am Meer, 1997, ISBN 3-10-062920-5
• Die Unsichtbare. Tirade an drei Stränden, 2001, ISBN 3-10-062924-8
• Der Ungeborene, oder Die Himmelsareale des Anselm Kiefer, 2002, ISBN 3-10-062925-6
• Die Verbeugung des Riesen. Vom Erzählen, 2003, ISBN 3-10-062926-4
• Geständnisse eines Touristen. Ein Verhör, 2004, ISBN 3-10-062927-2
• Der fliegende Berg, 2006, ISBN 978-3-10-062936-4
• Damen & Herren unter Wasser, together with Manfred Wakolbinger, 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-062937-1
• Odysseus, Verbrecher. Schauspiel einer Heimkehr, 2010, ISBN 978-3-10-062945-6
• Der Wolfsjäger. Drei polnische Duette, together with Martin Pollack, 2011, ISBN 978-3-10-062950-0
• Atlas eines ängstlichen Mannes, 2012, ISBN 978-3-10-062951-7
• Gerede: Elf Ansprachen, 2014, ISBN 978-3-10-062952-4
• Cox oder Der Lauf der Zeit, 2016, ISBN 978-3-10-082951-1

Translated into English

• The Terrors of Ice and Darkness, 1991, translated by John E. Woods, ISBN 0-8021-3459-9
• The Last World, 1991, translated by John E. Woods, ISBN 0-8021-3458-0
• The Dog King, 1997, translated by John E. Woods, ISBN 0-679-76860-2
• Atlas of an Anxious Man, 2016, translated by Simon Pare, ISBN 9780857423146
• The Flying Mountain, 2018, translated by Simon Pare, ISBN 9780857425065

External links

• Official website (German)
• Library of Congress, New Literature from Europe, May 1998
• S. Fischer Verlag, his publisher (German)