Meinhard Rauchensteiner
Meinhard Rauchensteiner, born in 1970 in Vienna, studied philosophy, fine arts, applied arts, theology, and political science at the University of Vienna, the Academy of Fine Arts, and the University of Applied Arts. He wrote for ‘Frankfurter Hefte,’ ‘Morgen,’ and ‘Lichtungen,’ and published in various daily newspapers and periodicals. He also taught for seven years at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Department of Photography. For over twenty-five years, he has worked in the Austrian Presidential Office as a Speechwriter and as Head of the Department for Science, Art, and Culture. Rauchensteiner has published five short story collections, including:A Little Alphabet of the State Visit (2011, with an expanded edition in 2020),Two-Way Traffic (2021),Various Deaths (2023) и „When I’m Alone, the Third One Bothers Me (bilingual German-Macedonian, trans. Marija Girevska, 2024). In film, he is known for the short films Есен Autumn (UA Diagonale 2016), Roma (UA Diagonale 2020) and Antifascist Zoo (UA Diagonale 2022).
When I am alone, I am bothered by the third / Wenn ich alleine bin, stört
jeder dritte nur Wenn ich alleine bin, stört jeder dritte nur
Self-published, Skopje 2024
Translation to Macedonian: Marija Girevska
“The book is a selection of Rauschensteiner's latest, previously unpublished, short stories and short prose and aphorisms published in German in Austria. The entire concept for the book was conceived in collaboration between the translator and the author. This is the first translation into Macedonian of the short stories of this contemporary Austrian writer. Short prose is the genre in which his lucidity, insight, irony, and often sarcasm and humor are most evident. Those who know Rauschensteiner better know that books are his passion and obsession, both reading and buying. In his office in the Hofburg, right above the presidential office, behind the glass doors of the dark brown wooden bookcase, two hundred years old, lies one of the richest collections of translations of Joyce's Ulysses. Here, somewhere on the middle shelf, stand upright the three editions of the Macedonian Ulysses. As a lover of contemporary Austrian art and the rich treasury of Viennese composers, on his shelves "You can also find 'holy books', which are kept separately, in a special place in his home library. We don't have to enter his home, we can just read his stories. Kafka, Handke, Heidegger, Roth, Goethe, Joyce, Bulgakov, Musil, Doderer... are just some of what is “a must” reading for Rauchensteiner. Rauchensteiner, who belongs to the long Austrian literary tradition, writes here with a completely new voice, full of the magic of astonishment and surprise."
Maja Katarova