Words the World need to hear

Antonia Kraus

23/07/ 1995 (Meiningen/Thuringia/Germany)

Publications:

• 2010 “Weltenstrudel” (Papierfresserchens MTM Verlag, book for children/young adults (9-14 years) about ten boys in a fantasy world)
• 2014 “Xaverna – Stauffenberg fährt Rad” (Knabe Verlag Weimar, book for young adults (12-16 years) about books, growing up, the Baltic Sea and some history)
• 2016 „Ein Zauberzug nach Afrika“ (steinbach sprechende buecher, audio book for children about Ethiopian lifestyle, tales and history)
• Planned for 2018: „Arithmos – Das Morathis-Rätsel“ (Knabe Verlag Weimar)

ML&L - How did you start writing?

Antonia - I never could sleep after lunch in kindergarten, so I started thinking of stories depending on the little pictures on the pillows we got to sleep. When I came to school, I started writing down my stories and they grew longer and longer from year to year. In the age of 7 I decided to become an author.  Six years later I started writing my first book – the idea for the story came out of a dream and I had to start writing immediately. I finished it within ten months and needed some time to find a publishing house, but in 2010 “Weltenstrudel” was printed and published. It took me a while to write my second book, not only because of school, and it was a long process until it got published in 2014. That year changed my whole life because I moved to Munich for studying and so I came closer to “Stiftung Menschen für Menschen – Karlheinz Böhms Äthiopienhilfe”, a foundation helping Ethiopians into a better life. I supported “Menschen für Menschen” since I was ten years old, but now I wanted to do something new, so I wrote the script for an audio book about Ethiopia. Celebrities from all over Germany read the text and in 2016 we could present “Ein Zauberzug nach Afrika – Prominente lessen äthiopische Geschichte(n)”. All the money earned with this audio book goes to “Menschen für Menschen”. After that I was very motivated, so it took me only three months to write my next book, “Arithmos – Das Morathis-Rätsel”, which will be published in 2018. At the moment I’m writing on the Arithmos-series, currently part 3, and I hope the story will go on.


ML&L - What is your advice to young writers?

Antonia - My advice to young writers: Keep writing! Writing is the best you can do and if it’s just for your own soul, to escape from everyday life into another, maybe better, world. Publishing your books of course would be fine, although it’s not the most important point. But if you really want to, you’ll find a way. Just stay patient and keep fighting.

“I knew from the beginning that it would be very hard to become an author. But I also was a great football fan since I was a child, and from football I learned to fight and fight and fight, especially never to give up. I had seen so many matches with the score changing in the last minutes or even seconds, that I got used to believe in myself and all the chances I could have if I just kept on. Finding a publishing house for “Xaverna” was a great success for me and it shows that I was and I am on the right way. But I haven’t reached the point where I can live just from writing and maybe I’ll never do, but I’m trying my best, so I thought of how to make the best out of the earned money. In the age of about 17 or 18 I was thinking a lot about the life and the sense of living. My result was that life is for having fun, but for not to be a useless existence in this planet, I should help other people to have fun or at least to have a livable life. When publishing “Xaverna” I came back to that thoughts and decided to donate a fixed part of my earned money to “Menschen für Menschen”. I guess I’ll be doing the same with “Arithmos” because it’s just a good feeling – the missing money doesn’t make a real difference for me, but it can make a great difference for some Ethiopians. Maybe I’m idealistic, but I still believe that everyone of us can make the world a better place, and together we can really turn it into a good place”. ML&L - What are your career goals?

Antonia - I have none. Of course just being an author would be the best thing that could happen to me, but I’m studying mathematics, so I can work as a mathematician or statistician, too. My favorite job would include books or something cultural – well, maybe no, maybe my favorite work would be in a foundation like “Menschen für Menschen”, but I’m not sure if they need mathematicians. If so and if they read this: just tell me! I’m ready!

May.Life & Live - Thank you for your time. May.Life & Live wishes you to stay motivated and never give up on something you love to do.