born 1958 in Gotha, she studied Psychology at the Universität Jena at the end of the 1970s and since 1994 has worked as a freelance writer. While she intially published mainly poems, in time she turned to prose. She became especially well known with the 2009 publication of her autobiographical fourth novel, »Du stirbst nicht« (tr: »You’re not going to die«), for which she was awarded the German Book Prize.
Kathrin Schmidt
