Finding one’s inner voice with author Mirna Funk

Mirna Funk is not shy to speak her mind. The Berlin and Tel Aviv-based novelist, screenwriter, and journalist has a lot to say about contemporary Jewish culture, womanhood, and self-worth. “I always say my hobbies are writing about Jews, sex, and money,” she laughs as we find a table at Roststätte, a coffee joint in Berlin Mitte. Mirna and her five-year-old daughter, Etta, used to live across the street; since our chat, they have moved to a new flat nearby. Motherhood, as a topic, doesn’t phase her any longer. “I don’t want anything to do with the mum bubble. I’m a mother, yes, but I’m also a woman, an author, and a Jew,” she notes frankly.

Mirna educates through talks, curation, workshops, and columns for Vogue Germany, Cosmopolitan, Edition F, and Die Zeit, each of which are informed by personal experiences and current affairs. Her message to other women? “Be self-sufficient and independent. None of my female peers and role models, my grandmother and mother included, ever relied on others.” Mirna truly lives by that. Inherently hard-working, she presently studies for her MA in philosophy with the ambition to also complete a PhD – all whilst juggling her writing career and raising her daughter.

Winternähe, Mirna’s debut novel, was published in 2015 and awarded the Uwe Johnson Prize for emerging writers. Her second novel, Zwischen Du und Ich debuted in February 2021. Winternähe details the experiences of Lola, a GDR-born Jewish woman grappling with personal and family history amidst societal anti-Semitism. The story takes place in Berlin, Tel Aviv, and Thailand, three destinations resonating with different phases in her life. Lola is sharp, whip-smart, and confident – like Mirna, who dismisses any autobiographical links: “I can’t fulfil readers’ voyeuristic desires. The art of fiction is to create characters that touch you, but don’t exist. Of course, there are autobiographical touches, but it’s simply not my story,” she says.

Mirna was born in 1981 and grew up in the GDR. Commemorating Germany’s reunification, on November 9, 2019, she posted a picture of her and her father in front of Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock after 18 months of separation. The caption describes how his illegal escape, motivated by a quest to trace his Jewish identity, radically changed her childhood and brought consequent trauma to her family.

Israel, ever since, has played an omnipresent role in Mirna’s life. “Home, for me, is on a plane between Berlin and Tel Aviv,” she says, adding that if she only lived in one place, she’d miss the other – and vice versa. “Here, I’m more Jewish; in Tel Aviv, I’m more German.” Usually splitting her time between both cities, she feels weird about not returning to Tel Aviv, where Etta’s father lives, as often as she used to pre-pandemic. “I’m an optimist. Hence I kept booking flights during the lockdown, only to feel disappointed when I wasn’t allowed in.” She misses the culture, the warm temperatures, the casual lifestyle – working from a sun lounger and drinking white wine at lunchtime. “My Israeli friends are very touchy-feely – no wonder Covid developed as quickly as it did – so there, I am much more like that, too, because it feels normal.”

Mirna’s second novel, Zwischen Du und Ich, is told by two independent voices – Nike, a Berlin-based consultant, and Noam, a political journalist in Tel Aviv. Exploring violence and the transgenerational transmission of trauma, it also deals with self-love, the love for others, and breaking points, “a prominent topic in Jewish culture.” For Mirna, Judaism represents a special way of thinking, a culture revolving around doubts, disputability, and questions rather than answers. “If there is one thing you can take away from Judaism, it’s how our culture can stand others’ positions on anything.”

What does she hope her audience takes away from her work, I ask? “My language is honest, and I want to show that you can break the rules and taboos, but also that answers and truths aren’t definite,” Mirna replies, adding that societal standards and values, but also human interaction, continuously change. Norms, social or other, aren’t even on her radar. The beauty of writing, for her, is that it helps her to think, bring out her inner voice, and gain stability within herself: “Writing hundreds and hundreds of pages has brought me closer to my core.”

Going further, in her eyes, means overcoming internalised boundaries and setting new ones for herself. Not to push boundaries, but to feel comfortable within one world before entering a new one: “That also provides security. I’m now doing my MA, moving within that realm and enjoying myself, even if it takes longer than anticipated.” Of course, once you know more about Mirna, it’s clear that many things will follow after her degree. What truly drives her is her love of life. “I would totally pull a vampire move if I could. I have so much ahead of me, so many lives I want to live, experiences I want to make, and jobs I want to learn,” she says with a smile.

Mirna Funk is an author, journalist, and public speaker based between Berlin and Tel Aviv. To learn more about her journey, follow her on Instagram.

Portraits by Shai Levy