Nicholas Shakespeare was born in Worcester, England in 1957 and grew up, a diplomat’s son, in Asia and Latin America. He studied literature at the University of Cambridge and worked as a journalist for the BBC and “The Times”. He was also literary editor of “The Daily Telegraph” and “The
Natasza Goerke was born in Poznan, Poland in 1960. She studied Polish language and literature at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan and oriental studies at Jagiellonian University, Cracow. Since then she has been taken up with Tibetan languages and Eastern Philosophy, many traces of which can be found in her work.
Nayantara Sahgal was born in 1927 in Allahabad in northeast India. As the niece of Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India, she grew up in the very centre of the struggle for independence. In 1944 her father, Ranjit Sitaram Pandit, died of his last imprisonment under British rule.
Najem Wali was born in the Iraqi city of Basra in 1956. He studied German literature at the University of Baghdad. In 1980, when the Iran-Iraq War broke out, he chose exile. Wali studied German studies at Hamburg University and Spanish literature at the University Complutense of Madrid. The author
Moni Nilsson, author of children’s books and screenwriter, was born in Bandhagen in 1955 and spent her childhood in the Stockholm district of Kungsholmen. She grew up in an unconventional family where tolerance and trust were cherished. Her mother was a Jewish refugee who fled to Sweden as a child
Mirjam Pressler was born in Darmstadt, Germany in 1940 and grew up with foster parents and in children’s homes. After studying visual arts and languages in Frankfurt and Munich she spent a year in Israel on a kibbutz. Back in Germany, she worked at different jobs. She did not start
Miquel de Palol was born in Barcelona in 1953 and studied architecture. He made his literary début with poems. His first novel, »El jardí dels set crepuscles« (1989; t: The garden of the seven twilights), was distinguished with five Catalan and Spanish literary prizes and has been printed twice in
born in 1959 in Stuttgart, is a writer and translator living in Berlin after spending twenty years abroad, in Italy, France and several middle east countries. He has received numerous awards for his literary work, including the Hölderlin-Prize (2015) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Literature Prize (2016). In 2017 he
Michael Ondaatje was born in Ceylon (today Sri Lanka) in 1943. After spending ten years in England, where he began his studies, the eighteen-year-old migrated to Canada and has been a Canadian citizen since 1962. He studied at Bishop’s University, the University of Toronto and Queen’s University, and since 1971
Maxim Biller was born in Prague in 1960. After the violent end of the »Prague Spring«, his family moved to Germany in 1970. Biller studied literature in Hamburg and Munich. After graduating from the German School of Journalism he wrote his first articles for »DIE ZEIT«, »Der Spiegel«, and »Tempo«,
Martín Kohan was born in Buenos Aires in 1967. He studied literature at the University of Buenos Aires, where he received a doctorate with a thesis on the Argentine national hero San Martín and where he currently teaches literary theory. He is also a visiting lecturer at the Universidad Nacional
Martin Mosebach was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1951. After studying at a grammar school specializing in the arts he studied law both in his native city and in Bonn, and after graduating set up as a freelance writer in Frankfurt. 1983 saw the appearance of his first novel,
