Peter Waterhouse
Austria
Peter Waterhouse was at home between languages from the very beginning: the son of an English officer and an Austrian mother was born in Berlin in 1956 and spent his childhood in Germany and South-East Asia. To this day, writing for him is first and foremost a matter of translation, be it from one language to another or from the nonlinguistic into language, the boundaries of which Waterhouse continually explores anew. In often floating, open forms, he feels his way towards the world and perception.
Z Ypsilon X, an exploration of the role of his grandfather in Nazi propaganda, this poetics is consistently carried forward: plot in the classical sense recedes in favour of a space for thought and language in which words, things and perceptions come into motion. The text unfolds as a loosely woven tapestry of observations, reflections and poetic formulations that elude any unambiguous classification. Characteristic of Waterhouse is a decelerated, almost meditative narrative style in which the world is forming itself anew. His literature, as stated in the citation for the 2012 Grand Austrian State Prize, “makes the overlooked shine just as brightly as the seen” and sets language in new vibrations.
Z Ypsilon X. Novel. Matthes & Seitz 2025
Equus. Wie Kleist nicht heisst. Novel. Matthes & Seitz 2018
Der Fink. Einführung in das Federlesen. Novel. Matthes & Seitz 2016
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