Anke Laufer

What was your favorite book as a child?

It's tough to name a single book here! I was particularly drawn to the brilliant, subversively imaginative children's book tradition of the British Isles, as well as Tove Jansson's Moomin books or Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking. From a quite early age I was also devouring books by Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle or Wilkie Collins.

Do you remember the original reason or motivation why you started writing creatively?

When I wrote and illustrated my first little stories as a child, I wanted above all the very same thing that the authors of my favourite books did: tell fantastic adventures to myself and others. Then, as a teenager, I wrote diaries and endless letters, as well as (bad) poetry. It was only after my dissertation in cultural anthropology that I found my way back to fiction writing, mainly through Latin American literature and the stories that my interviewees had told me during my research trips. These days, my fascination has a lot to do with linguistic means and cross-genre forms of artistic expression. 

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

Hard indeed to say. A rather profane-sounding but very true answer would be: to get deeply involved with a single person, to have children together.

The probably more intriguing-sounding version would be: urban anthropological field research in the mid-eighties of the last century, when the country was shaken by a civil war between the military, secret police and guerrillas, and where it was easy to get caught between the fronts. That was an important, albeit highly problematic time for me, all things considered. As a very young woman from a lower middle-class German background, it taught me that in tense economic, political and social contexts you have to expect anything at any time.

Do you listen to music while reading or writing?

The following probably doesn't count: there are times when I put on my noise-cancelling headphones and listen to instrumental music or nature sounds to avoid hearing the lawnmower or circular saw in the neighbourhood. Occasionally I tell myself that I would like to live in a secluded place, but then I would probably panic for lack of company. But the world has become a noisy place and is getting louder and louder. Everything that arrives from the outside adds a layer or two of colour to what comes from inside your own head and your own emotions. Which can be inspiring, but also distracting and shift the focus and tone you want to set.