Ulrike Draesner (born 1962 in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

) is a German author. She was awarded the 2016 Nicolas Born Prize.

Life and work

The daughter of an architect, Draesner grew up in Munich, Germany. She received a Bavarian State scholarship for the best performing student at Gymnasium (Sixth Form) from the . She read Law, English and German literature as well as Philosophy in

Salamanca Salamanca () is a Municipality of Spain, municipality and city in Spain, capital of the Province of Salamanca, province of the same name, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is located in the Campo Charro comarca, in the ...

, and

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

. She worked as a lecturer at the Institute for German Philology from 1989 to 1993. In 1992, she received her doctorate for a dissertation on the Middle High German romance

Parzival ''Parzival'' () is a medieval chivalric romance by the poet and knight Wolfram von Eschenbach in Middle High German. The poem, commonly dated to the first quarter of the 13th century, centers on the Arthurian hero Parzival (Percival in English) ...

. In 1993, Draesner quit her academic career in order to work as a full-time author. She has lived in Berlin since 1994, writing both poetry and prose. Her novel ''Vorliebe'' (2010) is a romance novel. In 2014, her groundbreaking novel ''Sieben Sprünge vom Rand der Welt'' was published and a celebrated success. Draesner frequently collaborates in cross-media projects with other artists and merges literature with sculpting, performing arts, and music. She became a member of the

PEN Centre Germany PEN Centre Germany is part of the worldwide association of writers founded in London in 1921, now known as PEN International. One of over 140 autonomous PEN centres around the world, PEN Centre Germany is based in Darmstadt, Hesse. Work PEN Ce ...

in 1999. In 2010, she was elected to a Fellowship at the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts. She is a regular guest at international literary festivals, and currently (2018) serves on the prize jury at the Irseer Pegasus. Her work has been translated into numerous languages. During the academic year 2015/16, Draesner will be a visiting fellow at

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

, working with Karen Leeder, leader of the Mediating Modernity project, on topics of bilingualism, poetry translation and negotiating identity as a Writer in residence at the Faculty for Medieval and Modern Languages at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. A symposium on her and her work is planned for April 2016.

Publications

; Single author titles * ''Wege durch erzählte Welten. Intertextuelle Verweise als Mittel der Bedeutungskonstitution in Wolframs Parzival'', dissertation, Frankfurt am Main .a.1993. * ''Gedächtnisschleifen'', poetry, Frankfurt am Main 1995, revised edition Munich 2008. * ''Anis-o-trop'', poetry, Hamburg 1997. * ''Lichtpause'', novel, poetry 1998. * ''Reisen unter den Augenlidern'', short stories, Klagenfurt 1999. * ''für die nacht geheuerte zellen'', poetry, München 2001. * ''Bläuliche Sphinx'', Berlin 2002 (with Lothar Seruset). * ''Mitgift'', novel, Munich 2002. * ''Hot Dogs'', short stories, Munich 2004. * ''kugelblitz'', poetry, Munich 2005. * ''Spiele'', novel, Munich 2005. * ''Schöne Frauen lesen'', essays, Luchterhand, Munich 2007, . * ''berührte orte'', poetry, Luchterhand, Munich 2008, . * ''Vorliebe'', novel, Luchterhand, Munich 2010, . * ''Richtig liegen. Geschichten in Paaren'', short stories, Luchterhand, Munich 2011, . * ''Heimliche Helden. Über Heinrich von Kleist, James Joyce, Thomas Mann, Gottfried Benn, Karl Valentin u.v.a.'', Luchterhand, Munich 2013, . * ''Sieben Sprünge vom Rand der Welt'', novel, Luchterhand, Munich 2014, . ; Editor * ''Verführung – Novellen von Goethe bis Musil'', Munich 1994 ; Literary translations *

Louise Glück Louise Elisabeth Glück ( ; April 22, 1943 – October 13, 2023) was an American poet and essayist. She won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature, whose judges praised "her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existe ...

: ''Wilde Iris'', Munich 2008. * Louise Glück: ''Averno'', Munich 2007. * Charles Simmons: ''Belles Lettres'', Munich 2003 (translated with Klaus Modick). *

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

: ''Twin spin'', Göttingen 2000. *

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris in 1903, and ...

: ''The first reader'', Klagenfurt 2001.

Awards (selection)

* 1994 Literary Scholararship awarded by the City of Munich * 1995 Advancement award: Leonce-und-Lena-Preis * 1997 Foglio-Preis für Junge Literatur * 1997 Bayerischer Staatsförderpreis für Literatur * 2001 Award Künstlerhaus Edenkoben * 2001 Advancement award:

Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis is a German literary prize. It was established in 1983. The City of Bad Homburg vor der Höhe awards the prize annually in June. It is endowed with 20,000 euros and is awarded as a general literary award for outstanding ...

of the City of Bad Homburg * 2002

Preis der Literaturhäuser Preis der Literaturhäuser is a German literary prize. Since 2002, it has been awarded to German authors annually by the ''Netzwerk der Literaturhäuser'' during the Leipziger Buchmesse for exceptional text and presentation skills. The prize con ...

* 2006 Droste-Preis der Stadt Meersburg * 2006 Professor of Poetry at the

University of Bamberg The University of Bamberg () in Bamberg, Germany, specializes in the humanities, cultural studies, social sciences, economics, and applied computer science. Campus The university is partly housed in historical buildings in Bamberg's Old Town. ...

* 2010 Solothurner Literaturpreis * 2012 Grenzgänger-Recherchestipendium der

Robert Bosch Stiftung The is a German foundation that owns a majority shareholding in Robert Bosch GmbH, from which it derives its funding. The foundation was established in accordance with the wishes of Robert Bosch, who died in 1942, and conducts and finances s ...

für ''Sieben Sprünge vom Rand der Welt'' * 2013 Roswitha-Preis * 2014 * 2014 Longlist beim Deutschen Buchpreis mit ''Sieben Sprünge vom Rand der Welt'' * 2016 Nicolas Born Prize * 2020 Bayerischer Buchpreis – belles-lettres, for ''Schwitters'' * 2021 Großer Preis des Deutschen Literaturfonds * 2024 Georg Dehio Book Prize

References

External links

*
Ulrike Draesner bei der Nordrhein-Westfälischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Künste

bachmannpreis.orf.at

University Library of the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948 with American support during the early Cold War period a ...

*
Kunst als Wissenschaft: Ulrike Draesner

Ulrike Draesner
literature portal Bavaria {{DEFAULTSORT:Draesner, Ulrike German women writers 1962 births Living people

Life and work

Publications

Awards (selection)

References

Further reading

External links