Svenja Leiber

Svenja Leiber was born in Hamburg in 1975. She studied philosophy, literature, history and art history, undertook numerous journeys through southern and eastern Europe, Russia, Jordan, Syria and Israel, and now lives and works as a freelance writer in Berlin and Schleswig-Holstein.

For her work to date, she has received, amongst others, the Bremen Literature Prize Encouragement Award (2006), the Kranichstein Encouragement Award (2007), the Werner Bergengruen Prize (2009), the Arno Reinfrank Prize (2015), the Johann-Friedrich-von-Cotta Literature Prize (2023), the Hebbel Prize and the Villa Massimo Rome Prize (2027). Her novel *Nelka* was longlisted for the German Book Prize in 2026.

Her novels have been translated into nine languages to date.