Maria Beig

Beig was born on 8 October 1920[1] near Lake Constance in the German region of Swabia.[2]

Beig published her first novel, Rabenkrächzen (Raven's Croak) in 1982. It followed the fictional lives of four families from Meckenbeuren.[1] While it was unpopular in her home region of Swabia,[2] it did win the Alemannischer Literaturpreis in 1983.[3]

Her second novel Hochzeitlose (Lost Weddings) was published in 1983[1] and follows four women from Swabia during the World War I and II. It is set out as four novellas, each focusing on a different woman; Babette, Helene, Klara and Martha, and their refusal to marry. It was translated into English by Jaimy Gordon and Peter Blickle.[2]

Her novel, Hermine: An Animal Life, centers around a fictional woman and her interactions with 64 species of animal on her family's farm. It was also translated by Gordon and Blickle.[2]

In 1996, she won the Johann-Friedrich-von-Cotta-Literatur- und Übersetzerpreis der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart award[4] and was awarded with the Johann-Peter-Hebel-Preis in 2004.[5]

Her success as a writer was in part aided by the encouraging support she received from the German novelist Martin Walser who directed her to publish with Suhrkamp, a major publisher in Germany. In 2009 she published her autobiography called Ein Lebensweg.[1]