“If a nation loses its storytellers, it loses its childhood.” – Peter Handke
About Peter Handke
Peter Handke (6 December 1942) is an Austrian novelist, playwright and translator. His writings about the Yugoslav Wars and subsequent NATO bombing of Yugoslavia with criticism of the Western position and his speech at the funeral of Slobodan Milošević have caused controversy, and he has been widely described as an apologist for far-right Serbian nationalism. He has been awarded the Georg Büchner Prize, the Franz Kafka Prize and the International Ibsen Award; the latter award was extremely controversial and Handke was met by protesters in Oslo and widely described by critics in Norwegian media as a fascist with ties to war criminals. In 2006 his nomination for the Heinrich Heine Prize caused a scandal, and the prize was withdrawn due to his political views.
While studying, Handke established himself as a writer, linking up with the Grazer Gruppe (the Graz Authors’ Assembly), an association of young writers. The group published the literary digest manuskripte. Its members included Elfriede Jelinek and Barbara Frischmuth.
Handke abandoned his studies in 1965, after the German publishing house Suhrkamp Verlag accepted his novel Die Hornissen (The Hornets) for publication. He gained attention after an appearance at a meeting of avant-garde artists belonging to the Gruppe 47 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA, where he presented his play Publikumsbeschimpfung (Offending the Audience). Handke became one of the co-founders of the publishing house Verlag der Autoren in 1969 and participated as a member of the group Grazer Autorenversammlung from 1973 to 1977. Handke has written many scripts for films.
(Source – Wikipedia)