The German-Polish writer Sabrina Janesch was born in Gifhorn in 1985. She studied Polish Language and Literature at the Jagiellonen-University of Cracow as well as Creative Writing and Cultural Journalism at the University of Hildesheim. She finished her studies in 2009 and from then on, she has been working as a writer. In that same year, she became the first city writer of Danzig and she also obtained several working grants. For her first novel Katzenberge (published in 2010 by Aufbau Verlag in Berlin), she won the Mara-Cassens-Prize and the 2011 Anna-Seghers-Prize. The novel was also nominated for the Ingeborg-Bachmann-Prize. Her second novel, Ambra, was published in 2012 by Aufbau Verlag; her third novel will appear in the autumn of 2014.

Photo: © Milena Schlösser