Linda Anonye

I grew up in the beautiful city of Vienna, the capital of Austria. As a black woman with parents of Nigerian decent, growing up in a place like Austria was not always easy. Everyone questions who they are, where they belong and what their purpose is at some point in their life but figuring out who I was, was even more challenging for me. I was faced with curiosity, animosity, love and rejection and that mostly based on the fact that I did not look like other "Austrians" and that was confusing to me for a very long time. I went through phases where I started disliking myself and others because I couldn't comprehend why people would already judge me before even knowing me. That experience influenced my writing in the way that I started living in my own world of stories, I was literally bursting with stories to tell. I made up stories in my head about my Nigerian family, my life in Austria, friends and who I wanted to be. Stories about empowerment and breaking free. My experiences made me appreciate the power of words and the impact they could make.

Yes, I vividly remember the first story I read because I read that book over and over again. It was a book I received as a birthday gift from a dear family friend, I must have been about 7 or 8 years old. The book was called "Neue Schulgeschichten vom Franz" (translated: "new school stories from Franz") by the Austrian author Christine Nöstlinger. I remember the first time I read the book I was so intrigued by all the audacious adventures of the protagonist. I completely lost myself in the illustrations and the funny way it was narrated. That was when I fell in love with words.