Kathrin Brunner Artho Journalist and author from Zurich, Switzerland
Hello, my name is Kathrin. I study communications in Zurich, work as a journalist and dream of having a dog. Writing is my passion.
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What brought you to your work?
Hm, I can’t really say exactly when it was, but it all started with a book by Isabel Allende. It was about a boy who had to travel to South America with his grandmother. She is a quirky globetrotter, who accompanies a National Geographic Expedition to the Amazon as a journalist. Even though the story was told so that younger readers could identify with the boy, I thought the grandmother was much cooler. She was well read, well-travelled, had a dry sense of humor and on top of it all she was also called Kate. So, I decided when I was ten that I would be a journalist. A few years later I wrote my first short and long stories and fell in love with writing. There is nothing better in life than to travel foreign worlds and meet the most different people through words. Now I sometimes write for myself and sometimes for the newspaper.
How did you come to take part in Cornelia’s Artists in Residence Program?
When "Color of Revenge" came out I had the opportunity to do an interview with Cornelia for a Swiss newspaper. Nervous like I have only been a few times in my life, I drove to Volterra. We talked for almost two hours about books, the world, and everything in between. And during this conversation she invited me – just like that.
How did you like your time at Fraggina? Did you find inspiration?
It was incredibly exciting and comforting at the same time. Fraggina has a magic that is difficult to put into words. Although I was only in Volterra for a week, I experienced and learned so much. I looked forward to dinner every day because that was when I’d be able to listen to Cornelia’s stories. In in the library, I found much inspiration and in the studio I was able to let off all my creative steam with my fellow ’Fragginistas’. And at night, when I slept in the library, the books whispered stories into my ear that are only waiting to be told.
What did you take back with you?
A whole lot: a pebble from the driveway, a leaf from one of Cornelia’s olive trees, a few hairs from her dog Tabby (that happened to get stuck to my sweater) and a large helping of friendship. Because I made great friends in Volterra. We are still in touch, we write, talk on the phone and visit each other, and that is worth so much.