Biographies of the German Poets involved in the Berlin Poetry Night

The Participants: German Poets
The poet and writer Uwe Kolbe was born in East Berlin in 1957. After leaving school he met the German author Franz Führmann who was to become his mentor, and it was through Führmann that Kolbe had the opportunity to publish a number of poems. His first book, “Hineingeboren“ (Born into), was published in Weimar. Kolbe’s work was highly controversial and publication of his works was banned in the GDR. As a result of this, Kolbe worked increasingly as a translator of among others, the Spanish author, García Lorcas. As co-editor of the magazine Mikado he was able to circumvent his publication ban and continue to publish his own works. In 1985 Kolbe travelled in Western Europe and was a visiting lecturer at universities in Austin, Texas and Vienna. He moved to Hamburg in 1987 and received many prizes and awards, most recently, the Heinrich Mann Prize from the Academy of the Arts in Berlin in 2012. Between 1997 and 2002 he was head of the studio of literature and theatre at the University of Tübingen. Since then he has returned to live in Berlin and is one of Germany’s most well-known contemporary authors.

Brigitte Oleschinski was born in Köln in 1955. She studied Political Science at the Free University in Berlin and worked as a contemporary historian on issues concerning political repression in totalitarian systems. She has worked as a guest lecturer and translator, participated in poetry performances and collaborated on the internet project www.neuedichte.de. Oleschinski has published a poetry collection including “Mental Heat Control“ and “Your Passport is Not Guilty“ and was awarded the Peter Huchel Prize in 1998, the Ernst Meister Prize in 2001 and in 2004 the Erich Fried Prize. From 2003 and 2005, together with Indonesian artists, she performed the poetry performance “Laut Lesung” (According to Reading) in Germany, Indonesia and Mexico. Her poetry collection „Geisterströmung“ was published in 2004. She currently lives in Berlin as a freelance writer.

Ulrike Almut Sandig was born in 1979 in Großenhain and grew up near Dresden. Together with Marlen Pelny, she set up the literature project “augenpost”. After beginning a degree in journalism, she graduated with a master’s degree in Religious Studies and modern Indian Studies and made extended language study trips to India. Her first poetry collection “Zunder” was published in 2005, followed by “streumen” in 2007, for which Sandig was supported with a residency in Sydney. In 2006 Sandig was awarded the Meran Poetry Prize. Sandig has published poems, prose and radio stories and between 2007 and 2009 she was the editor of the literary magazine EDIT. The Südwestrundfunk radio station broadcast her first radio play “Hush little Baby” in 2008, directed by Robert Schoen. Her second radio play “Unter Wasser”, was broadcast in April 2010 and directed by Judith Lorentz. In 2009 Sandig was awarded the Leonce and Lena Prize. For her collection of stories “Flamingos”, which was published in 2010, Sandig was awarded a scholarship to spend time at the Literarisches Colloquium in Berlin.