Christa Wolf
(born 18.03.1929 in Landsberg an der Warthe; died 01.12.2011 in Berlin), author
After studying German language and literature, Christa Wolf worked as a research assistant at the German Writers' Association. Later she also worked as an editor of the magazine "Neue Deutsche Literatur" and as editor-in-chief of the publishing house "Neues Leben" in Berlin. Her debut “Moskauer Novelle” (i.e. "Moscow novella") appeared in 1961. Two years later followed the novel "Der geteilte Himmel" ("They Divided the Sky", trans. Luise von Flotow) which was awarded the Heinrich Mann Prize and filmed in 1964. Christa Wolf is one of Germany's most important writers and received numerous other awards, including the Georg Büchner Prize (1980), the Thomas Mann Prize (2010) and the Uwe Johnson Prize (2010). Her best-known works include "Kein Ort. Nirgends" (1979) ("No Place on Earth", 1982, out of print), "Kassandra" (1983) and "Medea. Stimmen" (1993) ("Medea - A Modern Retelling" trans. John Cullen with an introduction by Margaret Atwood) .