Bard Professor Peter Filkins Receives $50,000 NEH Public Scholars Award in Support of His Book Project Sibyl and Siren: A Life of Ingeborg Bachmann

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Peter Filkins, Bard College visiting professor of literature and the Richard B. Fisher Professor of Literature at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, has been awarded $50,000 by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to fund the writing of his upcoming book, Sibyl and Siren: A Life of Ingeborg Bachmann, which is a biography of Austrian author Ingeborg Bachmann (1926–1973). Filkins previously received a 2022–23 Guggenheim Fellowship, 2023 Fulbright Fellowship, and a 2024 Translator Fellowship, given by the Austrian Society for Literature, as well as a travel grant from Austria’s Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service, and Sport, in support of his travel and stay in Vienna, Austria, where he researched his book project, translating letters and manuscripts while working directly within Bachmann’s archive.

Poet and author Ingeborg Bachmann remains an iconic figure in postwar German literature. With the blessing of her heirs to write her biography, Filkins has completed much of the necessary research for his book—including translating excerpts from personal correspondence, manuscripts, acceptance speeches, essays, poems, stories, librettos, novels, and critical commentary from scholars—as well as studying historical documents, reviews, and memoirs from family members. During his NEH grant period, Filkins will focus on writing this biography. This book will expand the understanding of an important writer outside of her native language and culture, and place biography in the service of literary studies, cultural studies, translation studies, and the humanities.

“It’s very pleasing to have such support for the extended period of writing necessary to complete this book. It also goes a long way to bringing more attention to Bachmann's work and introducing it to a larger American audience,” said Filkins.

Ingeborg Bachmann remains Austria’s most celebrated writer of the postwar era, as well as a pioneer of second-wave feminism. Her unblinking examination of fascism’s poisonous, yet subtle effect on language and gender relations informs her poems, essays, stories, and novels. Though she died tragically in a fire at age 47, she remained an important influence on writers such as Elfriede Jelinek, Christa Wolf, and Thomas Bernhard. The critical reception of her work has also been enhanced through its translation into English, with Filkins having translated her complete poems, Darkness Spoken.

Filkins’s NEH Public Scholars Award is one of 25 in that category, and part of $37.5 million in NEH grants for 240 humanities projects across the country, announced in the third and last round of NEH funding for fiscal year 2024. The grants will support vital humanities education, research, preservation, and public programs. These peer-reviewed grants were awarded in addition to $65 million in annual operating support provided to the national network of state and jurisdictional humanities councils.

“From exhibitions, books, and documentaries about our past, to research centers to help us meet the challenges of the future, these 240 new humanities projects contribute to our greater understanding of the human endeavor and add to our nation’s wealth of educational and cultural resources,” said NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo). “We look forward to the exciting range of products, discoveries, tools, and programs these grants will generate at institutions and in communities across the United States.”
About the National Endowment for the Humanities
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at neh.gov.



About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year, residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place estate, Bard’s campus consists of nearly 1,000 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in more than 40 academic programs; graduate degrees in 13 programs; eight early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 164-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at our main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.

This event was last updated on 09-03-2024

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