Susanne Sophie Schmalwieser

What was your favorite book as a child?

Like many of my generation I was raised by a book franchise about a secret world of witchcraft and wizardry, filled with characters that I now (have to) attempt to view separately from their creator. Also, I cherished Thomas Brezina’s Knickerbockerbande — a book series about a hobby detective squad led by a both intellectually and emotionally intelligent girl.

What was the original reason or motivation why you started writing creatively?

I believe I was a passionate storyteller long before I even learned to write. I have always loved inventing or re-telling stories. Creative writing later became the medium via which I could do that, when the privilege of being a child and being able to talk about anything without fearing consequences was eventually replaced by other, more important privileges of growing up. Today, I also write because of the many great texts I have read that have made my heart drop and bloom — and due to my hope that one day, I might produce a few lines that might have the same effect on somebody else.

What was the most adventurous or thrilling thing you ever did/experienced?

Moving: to England at age 15; to explore India, Japan, Morocco, the US, Australia, Albania and many more; into a flat with my love; my body to music/up the climbing wall/through nature, even when my body and I were less than strangers; on.

Growing: up in a household where I was in a hurry to; into my body, together with my friends and family; my first grey hair.

Falling: out with people and learning to bear it; behind; for ideas and beliefs and unlearning them again; in love.

Do you listen to music while reading or writing?

I used to, but nowadays I seem to lack the multi-tasking skills and therefore prefer writing in relative silence, but surrounded by noise: on trains, on my family’s kitchen table, in parks or at the counter of a bar in which one of my best friends works.