Francis Nenik

rdf:langString Francis Nenik

rdf:langString Francis Nenik works as a farmer and writes in his free time. He has published several novels. Current works include XO (a novel in the form of a loose-leaf collection) as well as a collection of short stories with strict alliteration (2013). His most recent work is The Marvel of Biographical Bookkeeping, a formally innovative book that explores the life stories of Nicholas Moore and Ivan Blatný, two 20th-century poets whose stars burned bright in their youths, Moore in England and Blatný in Czechoslovakia. Later in their lives both men were battered by history and individual fate.The book's wildly imaginative structures are built on meticulous research, and as the two men's separate, parallel existences unfold, they reveal astounding coincidences and heartbreaking reversals of fortune. An English translation of his story "Joseph and I" was published in the Spring 2013 issue of . Words Without Borders called him "a comic genius, a master of dialogue and invention who finds humor in the darkest of places and darkness in the midst of jokes." In 2014, he started writing a series of political short stories. In 2016, Fiktion.cc published Neniks novel "Coin-Operated History". Spector Books published a selection of Neniks literary essays, called "Doppelte Biografieführung". On January 20, 2017, he began his "Diary of a Derelict", which addresses the presidency of Donald Trump. In 2018 his book "Reise durch ein tragikomisches Jahrhundert" was published. It gained positive reviews and was nominated for the "hotlist" of outstanding books produced by independent publishers in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. The book was translated into English and published under the title "Journey through a Tragicomic Century. The Absurd Life of Hasso Grabner" (2020). Also in 2021, Nenik's novel "E. or The Island" was published, which deals with the German euthanasia program during the Nazi era. The book was a success and Nenik was awarded the Anna Seghers Prize in November 2021.