Maria Karlsdottir
Born(1935-09-08)8 September 1935
Berlin
Died24 December 2013(2013-12-24) (aged 78)
Rüdersdorf
Pen nameHelga M. Novak
NationalityGerman, Icelandic

Helga M. Novak (pseudonym for Maria Karlsdottir; 8 September 1935 – 24 December 2013) was a German-Icelandic writer.

Novak was born in Berlin. She grew up in East Germany, studied journalism and philosophy at the University of Leipzig. She resigned from the East German Socialist Unity Party (SED) in 1957 in protest for the Soviet invasion of Hungary, which had taken place in 1956.[1]

She moved to Iceland in 1961, where she married and had two children before her divorce.

She traveled to Spain, France, and the U.S., before returning to East Germany. When her citizenship was revoked for writing and publishing critical texts, she moved between Iceland, Germany, Poland, and Bulgaria. For a short period, she was an informer ("inoffizieller Mitarbeiter") for the East German Stasi.[2] In 2004, German authorities denied her German citizenship.[3][4] Novak died in 2013 in Berlin.[5]

Awards

Works

References

  1. ^ Ulmer, Konstantin (7 March 2014). "Ungebunden, ungehorsam, ungezügelt. Zum Leben und Werk der Dichterin Helga M. Novak". BPB. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  2. ^ Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung
  3. ^ Ulmer, Konstantin (7 March 2014). "Ungebunden, ungehorsam, ungezügelt. Zum Leben und Werk der Dichterin Helga M. Novak". BPB. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  4. ^ Rohlf, Sabine (25 November 2013). "Helga M. Novak Ausgebürgert, zehn Jahre vor Biermann". Berliner Zeitung. Retrieved 8 January 2020.[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ Moeller, Jack; Berger, Simone; Wieden, Anja (2015). Kaleidoskop: Kultur, Literature, Und Grammatik. Canada. p. 18. ISBN 9781305886001.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

External links


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