Alissa Walser (born 1961) is a German writer, translator, and artist. She was born in

Friedrichshafen Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''Kre ...

on Lake Constance. Her father is the German writer

Martin Walser Martin Walser (; born 24 March 1927) is a German writer. Life Walser was born in Wasserburg am Bodensee, on Lake Constance. His parents were coal merchants, and they also kept an inn next to the train station in Wasserburg. He described the e ...

. She is known for her short stories, plays, novels, and translations. Many of her stories include drawings which seem to interrupt them but instead continue the narrative on a different level. She has won a number of German literary prizes.

Life

From 1981 to 1986 Alissa Walser studied painting in Vienna and New York City. After 1990 she began publishing translations and fiction. She lives in Frankfurt/Main (Germany) and is married to Sascha Anderson.

Works available in English

''Mesmerized'', her first novel (''Am Anfang war die Nacht Musik,'' 2010), has been translated into English by

Jamie Bulloch Jamie Bulloch (born 6 September 1969) is a British historian and translator of German literature. Life and work Jamie was born at East Dulwich Hospital in 1969. He grew up in Tooting, south-west London, attending first Rosemead School, then Whi ...

. It retells the encounter of the blind eighteenth-century pianist and composer

Maria Theresia Paradis Maria Theresia von Paradis (May 15, 1759 – February 1, 1824) was an Austrian musician and composer who lost her sight at an early age, and for whom her close friend Mozart may have written his Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-flat major. She was a ...

and the healing attempt by the scandalous doctor

Franz Anton Mesmer Franz Anton Mesmer (; ; 23 May 1734 – 5 March 1815) was a German physician with an interest in astronomy. He theorised the existence of a natural energy transference occurring between all animated and inanimate objects; this he called " ani ...

. Th
original book cover for the German edition
is based on a drawing by Walser of a

glass harmonica The glass harmonica, also known as the glass armonica, glass harmonium, bowl organ, hydrocrystalophone, or simply the armonica or harmonica (derived from , ''harmonia'', the Greek word for harmony), is a type of musical instrument that uses a ...

, an eighteenth-century musical instrument.

Barbara Albert Barbara Albert (born 1970 in Vienna) is an Austrian writer, film-producer and film-director. She studied filmmaking at the Wiener Filmakademie. Her first film to become known to a larger audience was '' Nordrand'', which describes the reality ...

directed a film adaptation under the title
Mademoiselle Paradis
' (''Licht'', 2017).

Four Stories about

Berthe Morisot Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot (; January 14, 1841 – March 2, 1895) was a French painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. In 1864, Morisot exhibited for the first time in the highly es ...

, Mary Cassatt,

Eva Gonzalès Eva Gonzalès (April 19, 1849 – May 6, 1883) was a French Impressionist painter. She was one of the four most notable female Impressionists in the nineteenth century, along with Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Berthe Morisot (1841-95), and Mar ...

, Marie Bracquemond'' by Diane Broeckhoven, Noëlle Châtelet, Annette Pehnt, Alissa Walser. Hatje Cantz, 2008. Several stories appeared in English translation in journals such as ''

Open City In war, an open city is a settlement which has announced it has abandoned all defensive efforts, generally in the event of the imminent capture of the city to avoid destruction. Once a city has declared itself open the opposing military will be ...

'' (vol. 8, 2000) and ''Grand Street''.

Translations into German (Sselection)

Prose and poetry

Diane Glancy (Helen) Diane Glancy (March 18, 1941) is an American poet, author, and playwright. Life and career Glancy was born in Kansas City, Missouri, to a Cherokee descent (non-enrolled) father, Lewis H. Hall, and an English-German-American mother. At a ...

: ''Kriegstanz.'' Frankfurt 1995. *

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, ''The ...

: ''Max Nix.'' Frankfurt 1996. * Sylvia Plath: ''Die Tagebücher.'' Frankfurt 1997. *

Kay Boyle Kay Boyle (February 19, 1902 – December 27, 1992) was an American novelist, short story writer, educator, and political activist. She was a Guggenheim Fellow and O. Henry Award winner. Early years The granddaughter of a publisher, Boyle was ...

: ''Das kleine Kamel.'' Frankfurt 1998. * Robert Barry: ''Ein kleines Stück vom Glück.'' Frankfurt 1999. *

Anne Carson Anne Carson (born June 21, 1950) is a Canadian poet, essayist, translator, classicist, and professor. Trained at the University of Toronto, Carson has taught classics, comparative literature, and creative writing at universities across the Unit ...

: ''Glas, Ironie und Gott.'' München 2000. *

Paula Fox Paula Fox (April 22, 1923 – March 1, 2017) was an American author of novels for adults and children and of two memoirs. For her contributions as a children's writer she won the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1978, the ...

: ''Louisa.'' München 2005. * Sylvia Plath
''Ariel''. English and German
Frankfurt 2008. * Mary Miller: ''Süßer König Jesus.'' Berlin 2013. * Elizabeth Harrower: ''In gewissen Kreisen.'' Berlin 2016. * Mary Miller: ''Big World. Storys.'' München 2017. * Elizabeth Harrower: ''Die Träume der anderen.'' Berlin 2019. *

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nin ...

: Die Füchsin: Gedichte 1965-1995. Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2020. Kindle and ISBN 978-3827013866

Theater plays

Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels '' Bla ...

: ''Ontologischer Beweis meines Daseins.'' Frankfurt a. M. 1985. * Joyce Carol Oates: ''Tone clusters.'' Reinbek 1990. * Joyce Carol Oates: ''Nackt steh ich vor euch.'' Reinbek 1990. * Brock Norman Brock: ''Da ist Monster.'' Reinbek 1991. * Joyce Carol Oates: ''Die Mondfinsternis.'' Reinbek 1991. *

Janusz Głowacki Janusz Andrzej Głowacki (13 September 1938 – 19 August 2017), better known as Janusz Głowacki or colloquially simply as Głowa, was a Poles, Polish playwright, essayist and screenwriter. Głowacki was the recipient of multiple awards and hono ...

: ''Antigone in New York.'' 1994. *

Jon Robin Baitz Jon Robin Baitz (born November 4, 1961) is an American playwright, screenwriter and television producer. He is a two time Pulitzer Prize finalist, as well as a Guggenheim Museum, Guggenheim, American Academy of Arts and Letters, and NEA fellowshi ...

: ''Vom wahren Feuer.'' Reinbek 1995. *

Marsha Norman Marsha Norman (born September 21, 1947) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. She received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play '' 'night, Mother''. She wrote the book and lyrics for such Broadway musicals as ''The Se ...

: ''Nacht, Mutter.'' Reinbek 2002. *

Christopher Hampton Sir Christopher James Hampton ( Horta, Azores, 26 January 1946) is a British playwright, screenwriter, translator and film director. He is best known for his play ''Les Liaisons Dangereuses'' based on the novel of the same name and the film ...

: ''Die Methode.'' Reinbek 2003. * Several plays by

Edward Albee Edward Franklin Albee III ( ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as ''The Zoo Story'' (1958), '' The Sandbox'' (1959), ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (1962), '' A Delicate Balance'' (1966) ...

(together with Martin Walser).

Exhibits (selection) and art works

''Sprachlaub oder: Wahr ist, was schön ist''
Texts by Martin Walser, water colors by Alissa Walser. Rowohlt, 2021. ISBN 978-3498002398 (German Edition) * ''The small work show'', BACA Downton, NY, 1984 * ''Small work, big ideas'', PAN Art Gallery, NY, 1985 * ''The new show'', Chameleon Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 1986 * Kunstlichtgalerie, Konstanz, 1998 * ''Dichtung und Wahrheit'', Arte Giani, Frankfurt a. M., 1999 * Kunstraum Brüssel, Belgien, 2001 * Städtische Galerie Backnang, 2001 * ''Text und Bild'', Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz, 2001 * Arte Giani, Frankfurt a. M., 2002 * Deutsche Structured Finance, Frankfurt a. M., 2004 * Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz, 2005 * Galerie Buchhandlung Lesezeichen, Dresden, 2006 * Galerie Brandstätter, Baden-Baden, 2006 * Galerie Pabst, München, 2007 * Literaturhaus Stuttgart, 2007

Awards (selection)

* 1992:

Ingeborg Bachmann Prize The Festival of German-Language Literature (german: Tage der deutschsprachigen Literatur, links=no) is a literary event which takes place annually in Klagenfurt, Austria. During this major literary festival which lasts for several days a number of ...

* 2009: Paul Scheerbart Prize (Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohlt Foundation) for the translation of poems by Sylvia Plath

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walser, Alissa 1961 births Living people People from Friedrichshafen German women short story writers Writers from Baden-Württemberg German women novelists 20th-century German women writers 21st-century German women writers 21st-century German novelists 21st-century German short story writers 20th-century German translators 21st-century German translators