Nika Pfeifer is a novelist, poet and transmedia artist. She studied Political Science and Communications in Vienna and as a Visiting Postgraduate Student in Lancaster, UK and at the University of Edinburgh. In 2017 she earned an interdisciplinary PhD from the University of Vienna, where she held a pre-doc position as a DOC-team research fellow from the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Prior to her PhD research, she studied at the Universities of Vienna and Pavia, Italy to receive her MA in Political Science, Communications and Contemporary History.
During the Spring 2020 semester, she taught a unique course designed for upper-level undergraduates, “The Beat Goes On: German-US Poetry” (GERM 323) focused on transatlantic ‘Beat’ influences and the relevance of different generations in light of political turmoil, linking socio-historical, transnational, and transcultural perspectives.
Pfeifer’s texts appear in literary magazines and anthologies, such as “kolik,” “Literatur und Kritik,” “the gap,” and “Lichtungen.” She performs at poetry festivals and experiments with transmedia art projects in Vienna, Berlin, Edinburgh, Helsinki, and Munich and enjoys working together with other artists.
Books published in German: Violante (2017). manchmal passiert auch minutenlang gar nichts / sometimes nothing really happens, really (2015). between. Prose (2015). zwischen. Prosa (2014). nichts ist wichtiger. ding kleines du / nothing is more important. thing little you (2012).
Violante was awarded the Österreichische Buchprämie 2017. zwischen, her critically acclaimed collection of short stories, was awarded the Österreichische Buchprämie 2014 by the Federal Chancellory of Austria. sometimes nothing really happens, really received the Buchprämie in 2015. Other prizes, invitations, and awards: 2017 Max Kade Writer-in-Residence, Easton, PA. Writer-in-Residence, Paliano, Italy, 2016. Villa Waldberta Residency, Munich, 2015. Writer-in-Residence of the City Ptuj, Slovenia 2015. seestadt aspern 2014. Artist Residency Schloss Wiepersdorf, Germany, 2014. Reinhard-Priessnitz-Prize 2012.
Nika Pfeifer’s poems have been translated into English, Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, Malayam, French, Italian, Slovenian, Serbian, Polish, and Belarusian.