Monika Maron (born 3 June 1941 in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

) is a German author, formerly of the

German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

Biography

She moved in 1951 from West to East Berlin with her stepfather,

Karl Maron Karl Maron (1903–1975) was a German politician, who served as the interior minister of East Germany. He also assumed different posts in East Germany's government. Early life and education Maron was born in Berlin on 27 April 1903 and was educa ...

, the GDR Minister of the Interior. She studied theatre and spent time as a directing assistant and as a journalist. In the late 1970s, she began writing full-time in East Berlin. She left the GDR in 1988 with a three-year visa. After living in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, until 1992, she returned to a reunited

, where she lives and writes. Her works deal to a large degree with confrontation with the past and explore the threats posed both by memory and isolation. Her prose is sparse, bleak, and lonely, conveying the sensitivity and desperation of her narrators. Her published work exhibited increasingly conservative political views. In October 2020 she announced that her publishing house had cut ties with her.

Awards

In 1992, she was distinguished with the renowned

Kleist Prize The Kleist Prize is an annual German literature prize. The prize was first awarded in 1912, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the death of Heinrich von Kleist. The Kleist Prize was the most important literary award of the Weimar Rep ...

, awarded annually to prominent German authors, and, in 2003, with the

Friedrich Hölderlin Prize Friedrich may refer to: Names *Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich'' *Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich'' Other *Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' ...

Bibliography

* (''Flugasche'') (1981) * ''Herr Aurich'' (Mr. Aurich) (1982) * ''Das Mißverständnis'' (The misunderstanding) (1982) * The Defector (''Die Überläuferin'') (1986) * Silent Close No. 6 (''Stille Zeile Sechs'') (1991) * ''Nach Massgabe meiner Begreifungskraft: Essays und Artikel'' (by the measure of my ability to comprehend: essays and articles) (1993) * '' Animal Triste'' (1996) * Pavel's Letters (''Pawels Briefe'') (1999) * ''Endmoränen'' (end moraines) (2002) * ''Quer über die Gleise'' (sideways across the tracks) (2002) * ''Wie ich ein Buch nicht schreiben kann und es trotzdem versuche'' (how I cannot write a book but try to anyhow) (2005) * ''Ach, Glück'' (oh, happiness/luck) (2007) * ''Bitterfelder Bogen''. Ein Bericht (Bitterfeld arch: a report) (2009) * ''Zwei Brüder: Gedanken zur Einheit 1989–2009'' (two brothers: thoughts on unity 1989–2009) (2010) * ''Zwischenspiel'' (interlude) (2013) * ''Munin oder Chaos im Kopf'' (2018), . *''Krumme Gestalten, vom Wind gebissen'' (collection of essays, edited by right-winger Götz Kubitschek, 2020), *''Artur Lanz'' (2020),

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maron, Monika 1941 births Living people Writers from Berlin East German writers East German women German women writers Socialist Unity Party of Germany members Kleist Prize winners 20th-century German women German people of Polish descent