Thomas Mann’s work is “full of things I myself would never dare do,” says Clemens Setz of one of German literature’s giants. Another favourite of Setz’s is author and playwright Peter Handke. “I love his work, but I hate parts of it,” says Setz. “I get irritated. I get more alive reading it.”

Clemens Setz (b. 1982) is an Austrian writer and translator, who debuted in 2007 with the novel ‘Söhne und Planeten’. Setz has received numerous prizes for his work, including the Leipzig Book Fair Prize in 2011 for the short story collection ‘Die Liebe zur Zeit des Mahlstädter Kindes’ and Wilhelm Raabe Literure Prize for ‘Die Stunde zwischen Frau und Gitarre’ in 2015. His second novel ‘Die Frequenzen’ was shortlisted for the German Book Prize in 2009 as was his novel ‘Indigo’ in 2012. He lives in Graz, Austria.

Clemens Setz was interviewed by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen at Rungstedgaard in connection to the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark in August 2015.

Camera: Simon Weyhe
Edited by: Klaus Elmer
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2016

Supported by Nordea-fonden