Elfriede Gerstl

Biography

She survived the war years by hiding in various locations with her mother – at one point she had to hide in a wardrobe – and thereby avoided being sent off to a concentration camp. After the war she started studying medicine and psychology at Vienna University, but ended her studies after the birth of her daughter. During the 1950s she became more and more involved in writing, and published her first work in the journal Neue Wege (New Ways) in 1955. Her first published book was Gesellschaftsspiele mit mir (Party games with me), a collection of poems and short prose that came out in 1962. In 1963 Gerstl moved to West-Berlin, where she received a scholarship from the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin. While living in Berlin, in 1968–69, she wrote the novel Spielräume (Room to Manoeuvre), which was not published until 1977. She remained in Berlin until 1972, when she returned to Vienna.

Gerstl's work spanned several different genres, including poems, essays and short stories. She was a devoted feminist, and much of her writing examines the subject of gender roles. In 1999 she received the Erich Fried Prize, as well as the Georg Trakl Poetry Award. On her death in 2009, Austrian minister of culture Claudia Schmied said that German-language literature had lost an important contributor. Gerstl's lifelong friend and college Elfriede Jelinek commented that, in spite of the tragic experiences of her life, Gerstl had always had the ability to write in a light and witty tone. Gerstl married author and radio editor Gerald Bisinger in 1960, with whom she had one daughter.

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