Mascha Dabić was born in 1981 in Sarajevo (Yugoslavia) and has lived in Austria since 1992. She studied Translation and Interpreting Studies (English and Russian), in Innsbruck, Vienna, Edinburgh and St. Petersburg. She did her PhD on the topic of interpreting in psychotherapy for asylum-seekers at the Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies at the University of Vienna in 2017. She works as an interpreter (for asylum seekers and at international conferences) and is a senior lecturer for simultaneous and consecutive interpreting (Russian-German) at the University of Vienna.
In addition, Mascha Dabić translates literature from Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian into German such as the works of Barbi Marković, Dragan Velikić, Miljenko Jergović, Edo Popović, Tanja Šljivar, etc.
In 2016, she debuted with her novel Reibungsverluste, in which she tells about one day in the life of an interpreter who works in the office of a psychotherapist for refugees. This novel was nominated for the prestigious Franz-Tumler-Literature Prize and made the short list for the Austrian Bookprize “Debüt.” Her short stories and essays are published in several German/Austrian and Bosnian/Croatian literary magazines.
In April 2018, she was a participating author in the Third Austrian-American Podium Dialog at Lafayette College in Easton, PA, and gave a literature reading at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York.
During her semester at Georgetown University, Dr. Dabić taught GERM 4910 – Inside, Outside, and In-between: Migrants’ Voices, a course for upper-level undergraduate students and graduate students.
Authored Works
Reibungsverluste. Roman. Edition Atelier, 2016.
Translations of novels (a selection):
Dragan Velikić, Jeder muss doch irgendwo sein. Hanser, 2017.
Barbara Marković, Superheldinnen. Roman. Residenz Verlag, 2016.
Emir Kusturica, Der Tod ist ein unbestätigtes Gerücht: Mein bisheriges Leben. Knaus, 2011.
Sreten Ugričić, An den unbekannten Helden. Dittrich Verlag, 2011.
Barbara Marković, Ausgehen. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2009.