Doris Mühringer


Doris Mühringer was an Austrian poet, short story writer, and children's writer. She has received a number of awards, and her contributions to Austrian poetry, which both are considered particularly significant.

Biography

Born in Graz, Mühringer suffered a serious illness, when she was seven years old. After being bed-ridden for months, she had to learn how to walk again. During this period, she discovered the world of books, especially fairy tales, which provided her with exciting new experiences, often affecting her own poetry in later life.
In 1929, the family moved to Vienna, where she completed various studies at the University of Vienna without graduating. After the war, Mühringer settled in Salzburg, where she made a living translating from English, and taking on secretarial work and proof reading for publishing houses. She met the writer Hans Weigel, who persuaded her to move to Vienna, and became her mentor. In 1954, he published some of her poems in his collection, Stimmen der Gegenwart. In 1976, she published her own rather different version of the fairy tale "Der Wolf und die sieben Geißlein" by the Brothers Grimm, as part of the children's book Neues vom Rumpelstilzchen und andere Haus-Märchen von 43 Autoren, compiled by Hans-Joachim Gelberg.
Shortly after publication of Stimmen der Gegenwart, she received the Georg Trakl Poetry Award, soon to be followed by the Bertelsmann Poetry Prize. She has received a number of other awards, including the Boga-Tinti Prize in 1972. In 2001, she was awarded the Austrian Prize for Children's and Young Adult Literature.
A member of the international PEN Club, and of the Austrian PODIUM, she moved in literary circles, took part in open readings, and, in 1969, went on a lecture tour to the United States. Despite her relatively few publications, the Austrian writer Gerhard Ruiss commented that there was absolutely no doubt Doris Mühringer was one of "the most important contributors to Austrian poetry over the last few decades".

Works