This Is the Vienna Lit Newsletter

This Is the Vienna Lit Newsletter

V I E N N A L I T N E W S L E T T E R

June 2017

Greetings!

This is the Vienna Lit newsletter –

we will keep you informed about English literature events and opportunities in Vienna. We’ve got our monthly book group up and running, which you are welcome to join, and we are involved in various other literature-related projects. Find out more in the following sections and on our website:

V I E N N A L I T R E A D I N G G R O U P

!! Everyone welcome !!One Monday a month we get together in the English Studies library at Vienna University (AAKH Hof8) to discuss some contemporary text.

Next meeting:

Monday 3 July:
6.00pm - 7.45pm

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
by Karen Joy Fowler

“There's no way of reviewing this novel without disclosing the shattered Cooke family's not-so-secret secret, deftly held back until page 77: that Rosemary's missing sister, Fern, was achimpanzee. … We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves resonates with Rosemary's grief for her missing alter ego and sister ... But it's Rosemary's problems as a young adult – informed by her "simian" past – that shape the narrative. Who and what is she? … Many a novel has devoted itself to exploring variations of Larkin's lament about what mums and dads do to their kids. But if any other book has done it as exhilaratingly as the achingly funny, deeply serious heart-breaker that is Fowler's 10th novel, and made it ring true for the whole of mankind, I've yet to read it. This is a moral comedy to shout about from the treetops.”

Liz Jensen, The Guardian

Preview:

7 Aug

Book t.b.a.

If you love reading and want to meet like-minded people informally to discuss a contemporary text, just come along. Drinks are provided, feel free to bring snacks!

6.00pm-7.45pm, English Studies Library, AAKH Hof 8, Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Wien

ALSO ANNOUNCE:

Classics book club

E V E N T S & Opportunities

June 2017

-- 9 & 16 June: English Lovers: Late Night Theatre Jam

ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?
Pure theatre: Every show a premiere. Amazing stories, crazy games, theatre experiments, music and more. Always exciting - always spontaneous - always Friday.
The English Lovers with their award winning mix of impro-theatre, music and big dumb fun!!! Sometimes sexy, sometimes scary, always original.

Theater Drachengasse Bar&Co, Fleischmarkt 22, 1010 Wien.

Tel. 513 14 44

-- 13-17 June: “Posh”

By Laura Wade. A year after their all-female Julius Caesar, BDU are bringing Laura Wade’s Posh to Vienna, hot on the heels of an all female premiere of Posh in London. Perhaps you’ve heard of George W. Bush’s “Skulls and Crossbones” and Boris Johnston’s “Bullingdon Club”! Just what has fuelled Brexit and seven years of austerity in Britain? From where do the neoliberals get their sense of entitlement? Despite their privileged positions, is it possible they are currently feeling under threat?After thirteen years in the wilderness, the conservatives are back in power. And in Oxford, ten young bloods with bottomless ambition and deep pockets are meeting, intent on restoring their own right to rule. Members of an elite student dining society, the boys are bunkering down for a wild night of debauchery, decadence and bloody good wine. But this isn’t just a jolly; they’re planning a revolution.

7.30pm, Theater Brett, Münzwardeingasse 2, 1060 Wien.

-- 14-18 June: “Lady Eats Apple”

A new Adam & Eve at the Wiener Festwochen, presented by Australian theatre company Back to Back Theater. We are finite in an infinite world – the punchline of existence is how little of it we’re given.Join us on a journey of mythical proportions with Lady Eats Apple.Set inside a vast, awe-inspiring inflatable,Lady Eats Appleis a story about the inevitability of death, our fragility and the myths and illusions we create to fortify ourselves.

-- 15 June: WriteNow Open Mic

WriteNow is the Association of English-Language Writers in Austria.

Attending themonthly meetings is a great way to become part of our writer’s community. Every third Thursday of the month we gather at the Cafe Korb(downstairs) to socialize, meet new and old friends, share tips about writing and publishing, and if you feel inspired you can partake in the Open Mic hour, in a friendly atmosphere. We believe that sharing your work, whether it be a poem, a chapter, a short story, a scene, or non-fiction, is an important part of the journey of being a writer. We ask that you make a small donation (€5-10) to cover the cost of the space. Please register via .

7pm, Café Korb, Brandstätte 9, 1010 Vienna. For details see

-- 17 June: Creative Writing Café

Join experienced writer Paul Malone at Creative Café to meet other writers in a fun and supportive atmosphere! Creative Café sessions are the ideal forum for you to explore creative writing and potentially develop ideas for exciting writing projects. Beginner to experienced writers, and writers with English as a 2nd language are welcome.

9.30am-12.00pm, Praxiswien5–a charmingstudio in Vienna’s 5th district, a short walk from U4 Pilgramgasse or U4 Kettenbrückengasse. Full location details provided with booking confirmation.

-- 20 June: “On the Academic Pleasures of Screening Sex”

“On the Academic Pleasures of Screening Sex: A Feminist Perspective”. Public lecture by Linda Williams (Professor of Film Studies, University of California, Berkeley), as part of the lecture series "Screening Pleasure", Department of English and American Studies. “Screening Pleasure” examines discursive constructions and representations of eroticism and sexual pleasure across media and history. With a particular focus on contemporary popular culture and approaches to pornography from a feminist perspective, the lecture series will cover such diverse topics as the genesis of academic porn studies, approaches towards erotic life writing, pornographic iconography, the ‘feminist sex wars’, and the depiction of non-normative sex in popular culture.

Tuesdays 18.15-19.45h, Unterrichtsraum, Dep. of English and American Studies, Altes AKH Hof 8.3, Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Wien.

For further dates & titles, see

-- 29 May -8 July: “Beau Jest”

A comedy by James Sherman. Chicago resident teacher Sarah Goldman is a nice, if mildly neurotic, Jewish girl with a problem: her parents want her married to a nice Jewish boy. They have never met her boyfriend, the very un-Jewish WASP executive Chris. In this charming light comedy, James Sherman not only makes us laugh with his delightful Jewish wit and humour but also centres the plot on the universal question of how to make your parents happy while still living the way you want to live. This popular play was made into a movie in 2008.
7.30pm. Daily ex. Sundays. Vienna’s English Theatre, Josefsgasse 12, 1080 Vienna

Vienna Lit is a Vienna-based organisation that aims to provide a platform for live literature and spoken word in English. For more information have a look at our website: