A visit, a workshop, and wine – my Vienna!

I recently had a wonderful mix of Austr(al)ia with the visit of Australian all-round super person, Anita Heiss to speak on indigenous literature at the University of Vienna and identity at the Essl Museum at an exhibition of Aboriginal Art. I caught up with Anita for a lovely long chat at the ORF Café following her interview with Austrian Radio FM4. Read all about her visit on her blog.

Monday kicked off for my soul strings with the first day of a workshop run by the Vienna Poetry Academy with Ernst Molden teaching and nurturing us through some wonderful wines provided by Franz Weninger. It was a workshop described in English as follows:

“to newly interrogate an ancient cultural-historical subject: how to productively use the psychotropic matter alcohol for writing? the class will be “equipped” with high-quality red wines from the burgenland by the globally recognized winegrower franz weninger. the first aim could be a new (radical?) type of “wine review”, beyond all flowery, savoury criteria. second aim: a poetry of intoxication after the great greek essay writer kostis papajorgis who recommended “pushing the boundaries of aesthetics” as an antidote to the “discourse of wasted reason”. in this context it can only be advantageous if a likewise romantic as well as critical spirit like ernst molden watches didactically over the ratio between control and its loss.” – Vienna Poetry Academy

And it was great fun, too! We were in the classroom on the first day, but then moved to the Prater on the second. The weather was brilliant and the evening ended with a spontaneous gig just for us by Ernst and Nino. The last day was back in the classroom with more writing and a rehearsal for the class presentation on Friday which included G’stanzerl!

A G’stanzerl in English
is so hard to write
but a few sips of wine
can make the words tight 😉

Photo by Kathrin’s camera

Friday was a gas with a class performance at Kaffee Urania to a full house with SRO and local press and TV to boot. I was lucky to be able to write in English and now have a whole lot of wine words to plunder.

You can see some photos from the workshop and gig here and here.

So, I´m all fired up and ready to go. Until next, then, when I´ll tell you about a flash fiction workshop in Gascony, France.