Austrian avant garde writer Friederike Mayroecker dies

VIENNA: Austrian writer and poet Friederike Mayroecker, regarded as “the great dame of experimental literature”, died in Vienna on Friday at the age of 96, her publisher Suhrkamp said.

“All of Vienna is mourning the doyenne of Austrian literature and our honorary citizen, Friederike Mayroecker”, the city’s mayor Michael Ludwig wrote on Twitter as tributes began pouring in.

Born in the Austrian capital on December 20, 1924, Mayroecker began writing at the age of 15. Forced to abandon her German studies to help support her family, she became a teacher of English in various Vienna public schools in 1946, but dedicated herself to writing full-time from 1969.