Julia Franck (born 1970, in
East Berlin) is a German writer.
Life
Julia Franck, a twin,
is the daughter of the actress Anna Katharina Franck and of the television producer Jürgen Sehmisch.
In 1978 the family moved to
West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
where they spent nine months in a
refugee camp.
She grew up in
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...
.
Franck studied German Literature and American Studies at the
Free University of Berlin
The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...
and spent some time in the United States, Mexico and Guatemala.
She worked as an editor for
Sender Freies Berlin
Sender Freies Berlin (; abbreviated SFB ; ) was the ARD public radio and television service for West Berlin from 1 June 1954 until 1990 and for Berlin as a whole from German reunification until 30 April 2003. On 1 May 2003 it merged with Ostdeu ...
and contributed to various newspapers and magazines.
She lives with her children in Berlin.
Literary works
Franck is the author of five novels, one short story collections, and the editor of a collection of essays. Her three most recent novels, ',
',
and ''Rücken an Rücken'',
as well as the collection ''Grenzübergänge'', engage explicitly with twentieth-century German history. ''Lagerfeuer'' is set in the West Berlin refugee camp Berlin-Marienfelde in the 1970s and follows four main characters, one of whom, Nelly Senff, has fled East Berlin with her two young children. ''Rücken an Rücken'' is also set during the years of Germany's division, ending in the early 1960s,
and ''Die Mittagsfrau'' spans from World War I to divided Germany of the 1950s.
Although Franck has not described herself as a feminist author, feminist scholars have noted her presentation of women's experience of history, power structures, sexuality, and relationships (such as motherhood).
Franck's books have been translated into over 35 languages.
Family connections
Franck is the granddaughter of sculptor
Ingeborg Hunzinger (1915–2009) and a great granddaughter of the artist and illustrator
Philipp Franck (1860–1944).
Awards and honours
* 1995 Open Mike prize of the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin
* 1998
Alfred-Döblin-Stipendium
Alfred-Döblin-Stipendium (or the Alfred Döblin Scholarship, in English) is a literary prize of Germany that has been awarded to Berlin writers since 1985. It was named after the writer Alfred Döblin.
The recipient of the scholarship is select ...
of the Akademie der Künste
* 2000 3sat award of the
Ingeborg Bachmann competition
* 2004
Marie Luise Kaschnitz Prize
The Marie Luise Kaschnitz Prize (''Marie Luise Kaschnitz-Preis'') is a German literary prize, awarded approximately every two years by the Tutzing Protestant Academy Evangelische Akademie Tutzing. It recognizes the lifetime achievements of writers ...
* 2005
Roswitha Prize of the city of Bad Gandersheim
* 2007
German Book Prize
The German Book Prize (''Deutscher Buchpreis'') is awarded annually, in October, by the German Publishers and Booksellers Association (''Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels'') to the best new German language novel of the year. The books, publ ...
* 2010 short list for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for ''Blind Side of the Heart''
* 2010 short list for the Wingate Literary Prize for the Jewish Quarterly
* 2022
Schiller Memorial Prize
The Schiller Memorial Prize (german: Schiller-Gedächtnispreis) is a literature prize of the State of
Baden-Württemberg. It is endowed with 25,000 euros and has been awarded since 1955 on Friedrich Schiller's birthday, 10 November. The award wa ...
Memberships
* 2022
Works
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*
*
*
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English translations
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Translations
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Film adaptions
*
West
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
(german: link=no, Westen, director:
Christian Schwochow), a 2013 German film adaptation of the novel ''Lagerfeuer''.
References
1970 births
Living people
German people of Jewish descent
Waldorf school alumni
Writers from Berlin
German women writers
German-language writers
German Book Prize winners
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