By Jordan Ryder
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In Iowa City, news about writers is on the tips of everyone’s tongues. Murmurs about writers who are also artists is rarer.

For Teresa Präauer, the media complement each other.

“My writing inspiration is visual, from art to trash on the ground to what I see at the flea market,”Präauer said. “I try to find the right words for [what I see].”

An Austrian writer invited here as part of the International Writing Program, she has published novels in 2010 and 2014 whose titles translate to For the Rulers from Overseas and Johnny and Jean. Not only is she a successful writer, she has numerous paintings and drawings in exhibitions and museums in Austria as well.

The two different skills needed for writing and visual arts overlap quite a bit, Präauer said.     

Working as a visual artist helps her bring concrete detail to her writing and ground a scene. The patterns she sees in art also inspire her writing; she tries to recreate those patterns with words.

In Johnny and Jean, for example, the titular characters, both artists, have a lengthy discussion of the significance of the color red, ranging from its meaning in art to its relation to the Virgin Mary.

“I really write word by word,” Präauer said.

She meticulously places every word in every sentence before proceeding to the next one, just as each line in a drawing is completed before the next can be put down, she said.

Both of her novels have received nominations and awards for German literature, and she is having them translated into English.

In addition to novels Präauer has published poems and drawings titled Pigeon’s Letters and provided illustrations for a children’s book, The Goose on the Contrary.

Like many writers, Präauer became fascinated with the craft at an early age.

“As a kid I was reading and drawing all the time,” she said.

This led her to study both painting and German literature from 1997 to 2003 at several universities in Berlin and Austria. From there, she pursued a post graduate degree in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

Being a member of the IWP, she said, has broadened her experience as a writer.

Discussing the refugee crisis in Austria and the rest of Europe with writers that participated in the Arab Spring, adding their perspective to the news from home, for example, made Präauer feel more open-minded and provided stronger thinking, both of which will strengthen her writing. 

“I’ve met people from all over the world … here I get to really talk to people about things,” she said. “Every person is like a key to their country.”