Irmgard Kirchner was born in 1959 in Innsbruck in Tyrol. After leaving school moved to Vienna in order to study cultural and social anthropology and psychology. She turned the skills that she had learned – research, speaking to people, listening, and asking relevant questions – into a lifelong career in journalism. Following more than twenty years as editor in chief of Südwind, a magazine devoted to international politics, culture, and development, she still devotes herself to writing today, except when she is watching insects and birds in the wildlife haven that is her garden.
