Photo: Erika Kronabitter

READING MANFRED CHOBOT                             

Festival poet 2023

Art Visuals & Poetry Film Festival 2023

17th of November 2023, 18:00
Location: Factory in the Künstlerhaus, Am Karlsplatz 5, 1010 Vienna

The Viennese poet Manfred Chobot also reads selected poems from his poetry collection "Nur Fliegen ist schöner. The volume was published in 2017 by Löcker-Verlag in Vienna.

Chobot's festival poem "la luna" is taken from the poetry book "Römische Elegien," published by Deuticke in 2000. "la luna" is likewise included in the poetry publication "Nur Fliegen ist schöner," a best-of collection of 200 poems from previously published volumes, which Löcker-Verlag presented to its regular author for his 70th birthday. Manfred Chobot has published a total of twelve volumes of poetry.

Manfred Chobot offers us poetry inspired by the light and the dark, the fragile and the dirty, the sensitive and the merciless, hidden behind the mundanities of life. Themes crafted with the keen eye of one who observes (through the medium of the poem) the various phenomena of culture and human relations, leaving in our minds a plethora of thoughts and on our lips a smile without a precise adjective.

MANFRED CHOBOT was born in Vienna in 1947. He is a freelance writer and poet who now lives in Illmitz (Burgenland), Vienna and Corralejo (Fuerteventura). In his works, Chobot deals with current affairs and cultural fringe phenomena. He is a board member of the Graz Authors' Assembly, the European writers' association Kogge and IG-AutorInnen, as well as a member of the Podium literary circle. In 1971 he and his wife opened the Yppen Gallery, later renamed the Chobot Gallery. He participated in photo exhibitions in Austria, Germany and France with his picture-poems. As a founder, freelancer, publisher and editor, the author worked for radio, television, theatre, publishing houses and magazines. He participates in international literature festivals, readings and congresses. His work has earned him numerous prizes and scholarships. In 2019, he was awarded the Golden Decoration of Merit of the State of Vienna. Chobot's works appear in Spanish, French, English, Slovak, Czech, Polish, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Hindi, Bangla, Slovenian, Dutch and Lithuanian.

Other awards: 2003 Honorary Doctorate in Literature of the WAAC (World Academy of Arts and Culture), 2006 Literature Prize of the Province of Burgenland, 2007 BEWAG Literature Prize, 2017 Kathak Literary Award, Dhaka / Bangladesh, 2022 Laureate of the Burgenland Foundation Theodor Kery.