“I'm jumping now – we need a bigger splash”

Stefanie Jaksch makes her debut as an author with GLOBART, writing the Festschrift for the Days of Transformation 2023 entitled “Anfangen. Eine Entzauberung.” (Beginning. A Disenchantment.)

Father and daughter in an Italian hotel pool. Johanna Dohnal and Rosa Parks side by side on starting blocks at the edge of the pool. A brief hesitation, a brave leap. Front-crawl breathing and climate activism.

In her multi-layered essay, Stefanie Jaksch questions the magic of beginnings and the security of hoped-for end points. With unexpected, poetic and personal images, she explores the revolutionary power of upheaval and faces the effort of carrying on and persevering, without which no beginning is conceivable. In search of the source of her own courage, she encourages a bold leap into choppy waters – and finds in the depths of still waters the strength for change on both a personal and a social level.

Stefanie Jaksch was most recently publishing director at Kremayr & Scheriau, where she gave her programme a socially critical, feminist and political focus. She created the acclaimed essay series “übermorgen”, which received, among other awards, the Bruno Kreisky Prize for the Political Book.

Stefanie Jaksch describes herself as a worker in literature and words, and since June 2023 has been a freelance presenter, curator and author. She is also a passionate swimmer and a (despairing) beginner in perpetual transformation.

The Festschrift is available from 2 September 2023 via info@globart.at and in selected bookshops.

Photo Stefanie Jaksch: © Luiza Puiu

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