The Grazer Autorinnen Autorenversammlung (GAV) was founded under the name of Grazer Autorenversammlung in March 1973 and is one of the two major Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n writers' association (besides the Austrian PEN

International PEN

PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....

). H. C. Artmann

H. C. Artmann

Hans Carl Artmann , also known as Ib Hansen, was an Austria-born poet and writer, most popular for his early poems written in Viennese , which however never after were to be the focus of his oeuvre.-Life and work:Artmann was born in Vienna as the son of shoe...

 was its first president. Other writers who contributed to the foundation of the association, were Friedrich Achleitner

Friedrich Achleitner

Friedrich Achleitner is an Austrian poet and architecture critic.Achleitner studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from 1950–1953. He joined the Wiener Gruppe in 1955, participated in their literary cabarets, and wrote dialect poems, montages, and concrete poems...

, Wolfgang Bauer

Wolfgang Bauer

Wolfgang Bauer was an Austrian writer best known as a playwright who, particularly in his younger days, was regarded as an enfant terrible by the Austrian cultural establishment.-Life and career:...

, Barbara Frischmuth

Barbara Frischmuth

Barbara Frischmuth is an Austrian writer of poetry and prose.She is a member of the Grazer Gruppe , along with Peter Handke.- Books :*Die Klosterschule, 1968...

, Peter Handke

Peter Handke

Peter Handke is an avant-garde Austrian novelist and playwright.-Early life:Handke and his mother lived in the Soviet-occupied Pankow district of Berlin from 1944 to 1948 before resettling in Griffen...

, Ernst Jandl

Ernst Jandl

Ernst Jandl was an Austrian writer, poet, and translator.- Poetry :Influenced by Dada he started to write experimental poetry, first published in the journal "Neue Wege" in 1952....

, Alfred Kolleritsch, Friederike Mayröcker

Friederike Mayröcker

Friederike Mayröcker is an Austrian poet.- Life :From 1946 to 1969 Mayröcker was an English teacher at several public schools in Vienna. In 1969 she took a release from working as a teacher and in 1977 she retired early.She started writing as a 15 year old...

, Reinhard Priessnitz, Peter Rosei

Peter Rosei

Peter Rosei is an Austrian literary writer.Rosei attended the University of Vienna, where he earned a doctorate in law in 1968...

, Gerhard Roth

Gerhard Roth (writer)

Gerhard Roth is an Austrian writer.-Life:The son of a medical practitioner, Roth originally also wanted to study medicine himself, but soon focussed on literature. Initially, he earned his living as a computer programmer; he has been a freelance writer since 1976...

, Gerhard Rühm, Michael Scharang, and Oswald Wiener.

In the beginning, the GAV was located in Graz, but eventually moved to Vienna. Today, the GAV is the largest writers' association in Austria.

Sources

• Roland Innerhofer: Die Grazer Autorenversammlung (1973 - 1983). Zur Organisation einer "Avantgarde". Wien, Köln, Graz 1985. ISBN 3-205-07289-8
• Herbert Zeman (Ed.): Das 20. Jahrhundert, Geschichte der Literatur in Österreich Vol. 7, Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, Graz
  Graz
  The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
  
   1999. ISBN 3-201-01687-X
• Klaus Zeyringer (Ed.): Österreichische Literatur seit 1945, Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck
  Innsbruck
  - Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...
  
  2001. ISBN 3-85218-379-0