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Draft:Alexandra Bernhardt

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Alexandra Bernhardt (born 1974 in Bavaria, Germany) is a German philosopher, poet, writer, translator, editor and publisher with Slovenian and Austrian roots living in Austria.[1][2]

Life and work

Alexandra Bernhardt read philosophy, comparative literature studies, classical philology (ancient Greek) and oriental studies in Munich and Vienna. In 2007, she graduated from the class of Peter Kampits with the University of Vienna. Her master thesis dealt with the teleological concept of the philosophical term "person".[3]

Bernhardt writes mainly poetry but has also published a collection of short stories.[4] Under the pseudonym Oskar Seltsam, she also writes children's poetry.[5] Besides, she translates poetry from Catalan[6], Danish, English, Icelandic[7] and Polish[8] amongst others into German. Her own poems have been translated into American English[9], Danish, Dutch, French[10] and Slovene and set to music[11].

Since 2019, Bernhardt is the editor of the "Jahrbuch österreichischer Lyrik", a biennial anthology of contemporary Austrian poetry.[12]

In the spring of 2020, Bernhardt founded the Vienna based independent publishing house Edition Melos the focus of which lies on contemporary German-language poetry.[13][14][15] The publishing house is known for encouraging debuts as well as publishing works of notable authors and artists like Petrus Akkordeon, Franzobel, Petra Ganglbauer, Andzrej Krauze, Sophie Reyer, Gerhard Rühm and Boško Tomašević. The publishing programme is considered to be "high-class" ("hochkarätiges literarisches Programm")[16] and "sophisticated" ("feingeistig")[17].

Bernhardt has received numerous awards for her work, including the Vienna Literature Grant in 2021[18] and the Media Prize of the RAI South Tyrol at the Merano Poetry Prize in 2022.[19]

Since 2002, she lives in Vienna.[20]

Critical reception

"Alexandra Bernhardt masters the craft of poetry so well that she can elevate above the classical forms by using them. Alongside the elaborated old school sonnets, there are fragile free forms of poetry, full of gentle formal irony that makes everything that is said sparkle and glint. (Alexandra Bernhardt beherrscht das Handwerk des Gedichtemachens so sicher, dass sie sich über die klassischen Formen erheben kann, indem sie sie benützt. Neben den geschliffenen Sonetten alter Schule stehen hier fragile freie Lyrikformen, voll leiser formaler Ironie, die das Gesagte funkeln und blitzen lässt.)"[21] – Edith-Ulla Gasser in an ORF broadcast about "Alexandra Bernhardts lyrisches Handwerk (Alexandra Bernhardt's poetic craftsmanship)"

"If you expect Bernhardt's poetry collection (...) to be a bestiary teeming with dragons, you'll be disappointed positively: fabulous, legendary, ancient elements – all of these can be found in the poems. However, in a sparse, minimalist form, in texts that deal more with I and we entities than with mythical creatures. (...) The vocabulary used can include foreign language borrowings from Romanian (...) or develops characteristics of an artificial language with terms that have a Middle High German, South German-Austrian or North German dialectal feel (...). The poems in Bernhardt's volume that are particularly convincing are those that exude something uncertain, enigmatic, as if something were still lurking there. (...) The overall impression of »White Salamanders« remains somewhat mixed to positive after repeated reading. (Erwartet man bei Bernhardts Lyrikband (...) ein von Drachen wimmelndes Bestiarium, so wird man im positiven Sinn enttäuscht: Fabelhaftes, Sagenhaftes, Altertümliches – all das findet man in den Gedichten. Jedoch in einer kargen, minimalistischen Form, in Texten, die sich eher mit Ich- und Wir-Instanzen als mit Fabelwesen befassen. (...) Das verwendete Vokabular kann fremdsprachliche Anleihen  aus dem Rumänischen umfassen (...) oder entwickelt Charakteristika einer Kunstsprache mit Begriffen mittelhochdeutscher, süddeutsch-österreichischer oder norddeutsch-dialektaler Anmutung (...) Überzeugend geraten sind in Bernhardts Band vor allem jene Poeme, die etwas Ungewisses, Hintergründiges verströmen, als würde da noch etwas lauern. (...) Der Gesamteindruck von »Weiße Salamander« bleibt nach wiederholter Lektüre etwas durchwachsen bis positiv.)" – Sebastian Weirauch in a review of "Weiße Salamander (White Salamanders)" for the Signaturen Magazin

"These small, compacted forms do not (...) restrict, but rather provide space to follow the network of references. The typography (...) may remind of a ship's bow or a sail; nautical vocabulary gives the poems a strong motivic compactness. (Diese kleinen, komprimierten Formen (...) engen nicht ein, sondern sie gewähren Raum, dem Verweisnetz zu folgen. Die Typographie (...) mag an einen Schiffbug gemahnen oder an ein Segel; nautisches Vokabular verleiht den Gedichten eine starke motivische Dichte.)" – The jury of the Merano Poetry Prize about the awarded poetry cycle trutzlichtigall[22]

"In (...) Europaia (2021), or European-ish, Alexandra Bernhardt establishes what it means to be European through found, fractured, and experimental poems, reflecting Europe’s long and shifting cultural identities. (...) At the center of Bernhardt’s work is a focus on encountering the other, which is perhaps Europe’s greatest historical inheritance – border-creation, border-destruction, and all that lies between. / Bernhardt’s restructuring and deconstruction of language include Middle High German dialect and unestablished compound words, creating a rich and complicated narrative for twenty-first-century readers. (...) (T)here is not one historical or present-day Europe, Bernhardt argues, but instead multiple Europes frankensteined together into something more reflective of human movement and resistance on the continent." – Hannah V Warren about translating the poetry collection Europaia[23]

Awards (selection)

Publications (selection)

Independent publications

  • Et in Arcadia ego. Gedichte. Sisyphus, Klagenfurt 2017, ISBN 978-3-903125-09-4.
  • Hinterwelt oder Aus einem Spiegelkabinett. Erzählungen. Sisyphus, Klagenfurt 2018, ISBN 978-3-903125-31-5 .
  • Weiße Salamander. Gedichte. edition offenes feld, Dortmund 2020, ISBN 978-3-7504-9335-3.
  • Europaia. Gedichte. Sisyphus, Klagenfurt 2021, ISBN 978-3-903125-57-5.
  • Under the name Oskar Seltsam: Mit 20 Tieren um die Welt. Gedichte. Illustrated by Andrzej Krauze. Edition Melos, Wien 2022, ISBN 978-3-9505056-2-7.[25]
  • Schwellenzeit. Von Honig und Mohn. Gedichte. Edition Melos, Wien 2022, ISBN 978-3-9505384-3-4.
  • Zoon poietikon. Gedichte. Sisyphus, Klagenfurt 2024, ISBN 978-3-903125-86-5.

Editorial work

  • Jahrbuch österreichischer Lyrik 2019. Sisyphus, Klagenfurt 2019, ISBN 978-3-903125-39-1.
  • Jahrbuch österreichischer Lyrik 2020/21. Edition Melos, Wien 2021, ISBN 978-3-9519842-6-1.
  • Drei. Hasenbichler, Alfred, Hintermayer. Junge Lyrik aus Österreich. With an introduction by Sophie Reyer. Edition Melos, Wien 2022, ISBN 978-3-9505056-6-5.
  • Jahrbuch österreichischer Lyrik 2022/23. Edition Melos, Wien 2023, ISBN 978-3-9505384-4-1.

References

  1. ^ "Alexandra Bernhardt - Autorenlexikon". www.literaturport.de. Retrieved 2024-07-18.
  2. ^ "Alexandra Bernhardt | Edition Melos" (in German). 2021-03-09. Retrieved 2024-07-18.
  3. ^ "University of Vienna". usearch.univie.ac.at. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  4. ^ "Hinterwelt". Literaturhaus Wien (in German). Retrieved 2024-07-18.
  5. ^ "Alexandra Bernhardt - Autorenlexikon". www.literaturport.de. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
  6. ^ "Der Dackel | Blätter für Asphaltliteratur. Premierenausgabe". www.asphaltliteratur.com. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
  7. ^ "Magnús Sigurðsson: Drei Gedichte - 0,0,Signaturen". signaturen-magazin.de. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
  8. ^ "Eine von Polens vergessenen Autorinnen". 19 February 2021.
  9. ^ Cunningham, Paul (2023-11-29). "Four Poems by Alexandra Bernhardt, translated by Hannah V Warren • Action Books". Action Books. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
  10. ^ "Résultats de recherche pour « alexandra bernhardt »". Écrire, lire, traduire (in French). Retrieved 2024-05-05.
  11. ^ "Songs". Alejandro del Valle-Lattanzio (in German). 2017-09-16. Retrieved 2024-05-12.
  12. ^ "Jahrbuch österreichischer Lyrik 2022/23 - 0,0,Signaturen". signaturen-magazin.de. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
  13. ^ "Alexandra Bernhardt - Autorenlexikon". www.literaturport.de. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  14. ^ "Bücher | Edition Melos" (in German). 2020-04-21. Retrieved 2024-06-18.
  15. ^ "buchhandel.de". www.buchhandel.de. Retrieved 2024-06-18.
  16. ^ https://signaturen-magazin.de/jahrbuch-oesterreichischer-lyrik-2022-23.html
  17. ^ Ganser, Angelika. "„Flügel und Füße ein Sprengen in der Ferne". Zu Renate Silberers Gedichtband „Reste einer Sprengung"". Das Blog der Grazer Autorinnen Autorenversammlung Oberösterreich. Retrieved 2024-08-06.
  18. ^ "Alexandra Bernhardt | Edition Melos" (in German). 2021-03-09. Retrieved 2024-06-07.
  19. ^ "www.sisyphus.at | Alexandra Bernhardt". www.sisyphus.at. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  20. ^ "Alexandra Bernhardt - Autorenlexikon". www.literaturport.de. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  21. ^ oe1.orf.at. "Alexandra Bernhardts lyrisches Handwerk | SA | 24 02 2018 | 23:20". oe1.orf.at (in German). Retrieved 2024-07-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  22. ^ "Guy Helminger ausgezeichnet - Die Neue Südtiroler Tageszeitung". www.tageszeitung.it (in German). Retrieved 2024-06-07.
  23. ^ Cunningham, Paul (2023-11-29). "Four Poems by Alexandra Bernhardt, translated by Hannah V Warren • Action Books". Action Books. Retrieved 2024-06-07.
  24. ^ "Guy Helminger ausgezeichnet - Die Neue Südtiroler Tageszeitung". www.tageszeitung.it (in German). Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  25. ^ "Oskar Seltsam | Edition Melos" (in German). 2022-03-20. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
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