Maria Beig (8 October 1920 – 3 September 2018) was a German school teacher and author.

Life and career

Beig was born on 8 October 1920 near

Lake Constance Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Lak ...

in the German region of Swabia. Beig published her first novel, ''Rabenkrächzen'' (''Raven's Croak'') in 1982. It followed the fictional lives of four families from Meckenbeuren. While it was unpopular in her home region of Swabia, it did win the Alemannischer Literaturpreis in 1983. Her second novel ''Hochzeitlose'' (''Lost Weddings'') was published in 1983 and follows four women from Swabia during the

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and II. It is set out as four novellas, each focusing on a different woman; Babette, Helene, Klara and Martha, and their refusal to marry. It was translated into English by Jaimy Gordon and Peter Blickle. Her novel, ''Hermine: An Animal Life'', centers around a fictional woman and her interactions with 64 species of animal on her family's farm. It was also translated by Gordon and Blickle. In 1996, she won the

Johann-Friedrich-von-Cotta-Literatur- und Übersetzerpreis der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart The Johann-Friedrich-von-Cotta-Literatur- und Übersetzerpreis der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart is a literary prize awarded in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, awarded every three years to writers and translators. The prize is endowed with €20,000. W ...

award and was awarded with the

Johann-Peter-Hebel-Preis The Johann-Peter-Hebel-Preis was endowed in 1936 in honour of the writer and dialectal poet Johann Peter Hebel. The prize is since 1974 awarded every two years (before every year) to writers, translators, essayists, media representatives or scien ...

in 2004. Her success as a writer was in part aided by the encouraging support she received from the German novelist Martin Walser who directed her to publish with

Suhrkamp Suhrkamp Verlag is a German publishing house, established in 1950 and generally acknowledged as one of the leading European publishers of fine literature. Its roots go back to the "arianized" part of the S. Fischer Verlag. In January 2010 the ...

, a major publisher in Germany. In 2009 she published her autobiography called ''Ein Lebensweg''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beig, Maria 1920 births 2018 deaths 20th-century German women writers Writers from Baden-Württemberg 21st-century German women writers 20th-century German novelists 21st-century German non-fiction writers German women novelists German women non-fiction writers