For centuries, Vienna had been the imperial residence and capital of the great multi-lingual, multi-national Habsburg Empire, and thus a magnet for the accumulation of power, prestige, wealth, and beauty. However, it is self-evident that not everyone could or should reside in the capital, that many talented authors, whether by choice or by chance, lived outside that glamorous city, in Kafka's words, far from the Imperial sun. At the outset of the twenty-first century, with technological advancements in transportation and communication with international publishing houses and chain bookstores, with e-mail and the Internet, for example is there any social, political, economic, or professional advantage to residing in Vienna, or has it become irrelevant today where artists live? Are their life experiences notably different, whether they reside in the capital or in any other city, large or small? Are authors choices of language or themes influenced by their provincial backgrounds? Thus the idea of "Beyond Vienna" is a compelling and timely topic. This volume will attempt to address these questions, while serving as an introduction to nine authors poets, novelists, and dramatists and their relationships to the capital: Xaver Bayer, Alois Brandstetter, Gloria Kaiser, Christine Lavant, Anna Mitgutsch, Felix Mitterer, Elisabeth Reichart, Vladimir Vertlib, and Friedrich Ch. Zauner. The contributors are respected scholars who were personally invited to join this project and who ultimately determined which authors would be included.

Georg Potyka, an Austrian civil servant in the diplomatic service, has written a novel about a fictional colleague, Leopold Navratil. Since boyhood, Navratil has been emboldened by his fantasy to fight evil and strive for good. An unspoken wager with a comrade is to determine which of them remains honourable to the end. However, to avoid conflict within the Third Reich, Navratil must struggle with his conscience and attempt to avoid compromising his ideals, as represented by the wager, while still safeguarding his family and his own existence. Though Leopold Navratil survives the war, he does not survive the peace.

In London in 1827 Charles Sealsfield (Karl Postl) published this travel novel employing eye-witness accounts, history, and anecdote to expose the oppressive Austrian regime under Emperor Francis I and his Prime Minister Metternich. His political observations are supplemented and embellished by his many detailed descriptions of the fads and fancies of the age, anecdotes and court gossip surrounding major historical figures, as well as by his dry wit which all combine to produce an eminently readable and informative book. During his lifetime Charles Sealsfield was a mystery, an unknown in so far as his identity was concerned. As a young Austrian emigre, his first publications were colorful descriptions of the fledgling United States on the one hand and of the moribund Austrian Empire on the other. Within a few years he became widely celebrated as the author of popular fiction about the American West, considered by many to be superior to American-born authors such as James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving.