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Die Entstehung der Rubrik wurde durch eine Förderung des Hauptstadtkulturfonds ermöglicht. 

Clare Wigfall

Author

Profile

Born: 16.7.1976


Language: English

Vita

Born 1976 in London/Great Britain, Clare Wigfall has lived in Berkeley, Prague, Edinburgh, Stuttgart, and presently Berlin.
She holds an MA in creative writing from the University of East Anglia, for which she was awarded the Curtis Brown Award.
Her debut short story collection "The Loudest Sound and Nothing" (Faber & Faber) was published in 2007 to critical acclaim. The following year she won the BBC National Short Story Award and was later nominated by William Trevor for an E.M. Forster Award.
Clare was a 2017 fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, following which Edition Solitude published a German edition of selected stories under the title "Alles, was ich über Zahlen weiß" (2018).
Having taught writing workshops throughout Europe, she will be a guest lecturer at Bard College Berlin in 2019.  She is currently finishing her second story collection for Faber & Faber, after which she is under commission to write a novel set in colonial-era British Malaya.

6 Questions

What brought you to Berlin? Love? World politics? Or was it a coincidence?

I came on a whim. My husband and I visited Berlin for a weekend while we were living in Prague and loved it so much we decided on the train home that we would move here.


What do you love about Berlin?

I love that the city allows one to be an artist while still enjoying a good quality of life, and it's a great city to live in with children.


What do you miss in Berlin?

A good cup of tea. Cheddar cheese. Having my family in close proximity.


What is your favorite spot in Berlin?

Kollwitzkiez, where I live.


Would you say you are a different person in Berlin? A different translator? And if yes, in what way?

No. But I became a mother in Berlin, so now I have to take care that my identity as a writer is not subsumed by also being a mother to three wild little girls.


Which existing literary work do you wish you had written?

I don't really wish I'd written anyone else's books, I just wish I had more time to write my own. They exist in my head, but I wish they also existed on paper too.

Awards

2017 Fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
2013 Recipient of an Edinburgh World Writers Conference Grant
2013 Recipient of an Arts Council England grant
2010 K. Blundell Trust Award for a young writer whose work contributes to the greater understanding of existing social and economic organisation
2008 Nominated for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award
2008 Nominated by William Trevor for an E.M. Forster Award
2008 Winner of the BBC National Short Story Award
2000 Winner of the Curtis Brown Award 

Work

Publications in german

Publications in original language

Has Anyone Seen my Chihuahua?

Walker Books, 2011

The Loudest Sound and Nothing

Faber & Faber, 2007