Liesl Ujvary reads from her first book Sicher & Gut (1977). In the afterword to the new edition, Ann Cotten writes: "This collection of witty, plain, and self-contained texts moves like the needle of a scale between a serious and a humorous reading (of course, the two are interwoven). Depending on the expectations one brings to the texts, they may appear as a contribution to the literary comedy of humanity, as a satire of specifically Austrian methods of living, or as a modernist-analytical description of a bleak, repressive postwar life. In any case, they bring its existential backbone into sharp relief."

In 2025, Ann Cotten translated this groundbreaking debut into English, bringing Ujvary's work to an international audience. Alongside Ernst Jandl, Elfriede Jelinek, and Friederike Mayröcker, Ujvary is a defining voice in contemporary Austrian literature.

Following the reading, Ann Cotten will speak about the task of translating these concrete poems.

Selected texts from the book are included in the forthcoming three-part publication in collaboration with design studio Syndicat accompanying Tolia Astakhishvili’s exhibition Figure of the Child. 

Liesl Ujvary (b. 1939, Bratislava, Slovakia) lives and works in Vienna. She studied Slavic studies, ancient Hebrew literature, and art history in Vienna and Zurich. In the mid-1970s, she translated and edited an anthology of unofficial Soviet poetry, whose manuscripts she smuggled out of Moscow. Her poetic debut Sicher & Gut (1977/2017) combines conceptual rigor with slapstick and social satire. Ujvary publishes poetry, prose, radio plays, and essays; her work extends to experimental electronic music and video.

Ann Cotten (b. 1982, Ames, Iowa) lives in Berlin, Vienna, and currently Rome. She made her debut with Fremdwörterbuchsonette (Suhrkamp, 2007); recent publications include Texte für Aliens. Anomie und Isonomie (Verbrecher Verlag) and Poller. Idyllen (Suhrkamp). She writes poetry and essays, translates from English, makes music, draws, and sits on the editorial board of the theory journal Triëdere. She is a recent recipient of the Rome Prize of the Deutsche Akademie Villa Massimo and the Christine Lavant Prize.

The event will be conducted in German. Liesl Ujvary will participate via video call. Ann Cotten will be present in person.