database
In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...
with short biographies of persons who have lived or worked in
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...
. The Westphälische Literaturbüro (Westphalian office for literature) in
Unna
Unna is a city of around 59,000 people in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the seat of the Unna district.
The newly refurbished Unna station has trains to all major cities in North Rhine Westphalia including Dortmund, Cologne, Münster, Hamm, D ...
operates the biggest database for literary production in North Rhine-Westphalia, continuously updated since 2001. The database presents authors from NRW with detailed portraits as well as literary institutions and publishers.
Content
Currently the database contains the bio-bibliographical data of more than 600 authors from North Rhine-Westphalia. It also offers text samples or press photographs, of the writers for download. Amongst other things, it allows searches for authors by region, genre, gender or in alphabetical order. In addition, the section Institutions offers information on publishers, libraries and literary institutions in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Authors
Among the well-known writers whose literary profile is presented there are: Khalid al-Maaly, Jochen Arlt,
Ingrid Bachér
Ingrid Bachér (pen name for Ingrid Erben, born 24 September 1930 as Ingrid Schwarze in Rostock) is a German writer, a former member of the Gruppe 47 and former president of the PEN Germany.
Biography
Ingrid Bachér is a great-granddaughter ...
, Jürgen Becker,
Marcel Beyer
Marcel Beyer (born 23 November 1965) is a German writer.
Life
Marcel Beyer was born in Tailfingen, Württemberg, and grew up in Kiel and Neuss. From 1987 to 1991 he studied German language and literature, English studies and literary studies ...
Martin Ebbertz
Martin Ebbertz (born 1962 in Aachen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, West Germany) is a German writer of children's books.
He grew up in Pruem (Eifel), and studied Germanistik, Philosophy, and History in Freiburg, Münster and Frankfurt. He lived and wor ...
Gisbert Haefs
Gisbert Haefs (born 9 January 1950) is a German writer in several genres and translator. He has written historical novels such as ''Alexander'', won both the Deutscher Science Fiction Preis and Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis in science fiction, and placed a ...
,
Ulla Hahn
Ulla Hahn is a German poet and novelist.
Partial bibliography
Poetry collections
* ''Herz über Kopf'' (1981),
* ''Spielende'' (1983),
* ''Unerhörte Nähe'' (1988),
* ''Freudenfeuer'' (1989),
* ''Liebesgedichte'' (1993),
* ''Epikurs ...
,
Petra Hammesfahr
Petra Hammesfahr (; born 10 May 1951) is a German crime writer. She has won several awards, including the Crime Prize of Wiesbaden and the Rhineland Literary Prize.
Hammesfahr was born in Immerath (Erkelenz), North Rhine-Westphalia. Her first ...
,
Elke Heidenreich
Elke Heidenreich (née Riegert; born 15 February 1943) is a German author, TV presenter, literary critic and journalist. She has written audio plays, a magazine column, scripts for television plays and books. Heidenreich is known as the ''Kabarett ...
,
Guy Helminger
Guy Helminger (born 1963) is a Luxembourgish author who has written a number of successful novels and plays in German.
Biography
Guy Helminger, the younger brother of author Nico Helminger, was born on 20 January 1963 in Esch-sur-Alzette in so ...
,
Ulrich Horstmann
Ulrich Horstmann (born 31 May 1949 in Bünde) is a German literary scholar and writer, who has also written under the pseudonym Klaus Steintal.
Life
Ulrich Horstmann finished his studies of English and Philosophy in 1974 with a doctoral thesis o ...
, Rudolf Jagusch, Renate Kampmann,
Jürgen Kehrer
Jürgen Kehrer (born 21 January 1956) is a German author. His success led to a substantial change in German crime fiction and brought a new industry to his chosen home town of Münster.
Life
Jürgen Kehrer was born in Essen in the Ruhr regio ...
,
Hans Werner Kettenbach
Hans Werner Kettenbach (20 April 1928 – 5 January 2018) was a German journalist and writer.
He also wrote crime fiction under the pseudonym Christian Ohlig.
Life
Born in Bendorf, across the river from Koblenz, Kettenbach grew up in Cologne. ...
Peter Klusen
Peter Klusen (born 1951) is a German writer, translator and cartoonist.
Life and work
Peter Klusen was born in Mönchengladbach. He is a German writer and cartoonist. After studying at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and RWTH Aachen Univ ...
, Herbert Knorr,
Tim Krohn
Tim Krohn (born 9 February 1965) is an author of Swiss literature, recipient of the 1994 Conrad-Ferdinand-Meyer-Preis.
Born in Wiedenbrück, North Rhine-Westphalia, Krohn grew up in Glarus. He interrupted his studies of German language, Philosop ...
,
Brigitte Kronauer
Brigitte Kronauer (29 December 1940 – 22 July 2019) was a German writer who lived in Hamburg. Her novels, written in the tradition of Jean Paul with artful writing and an ironic undertone, were awarded several prizes, including in 2005 the Geo ...
,
Wolfgang Kubin
Wolfgang Kubin (; born December 17, 1945 in Celle) is a German poet, essayist, sinologist and translator of literary works. He is the former director of the Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies at the University of Bonn, Germany. Kubin has f ...
, Axel Kutsch,
Annette Langen
Annette Langen (born 29 April 1967) is a German author of children's and young adults’ literature. Since 1989, she has published over 100 books; parts of her work have been translated into over 30 languages. Her best-known work is the children's ...
, Kurt Lehmkuhl,
Thorsten Libotte
Thorsten Libotte (born 20 July 1972 in Bonn) is a German writer and poet.
Life and career
Thorsten Libotte was born 1972 in Bonn (North Rhine-Westphalia). After graduating from high school and subsequent military duty he began his biology studi ...
,
Andreas Mand
Andreas Mand (born 14 December 1959) is a German contemporary author of novels, short stories and essays and a playwright. He is one of the representatives of the German Popular literature, and in addition a stay-at-home dad, because he wanted t ...
,
Erik Martin
Erik Martin (12 January 1936 in Neuss – 25 April 2017) was a German writer, songwriter and composer of songs. He was the founder and editor of the literature and art magazine ''Muschelhaufen''.
Life and work
Erik Martin was the first-born son ...
, Inge Meyer-Dietrich,
Ingrid Noll
Ingrid Noll (married name Ingrid Gullatz, born 29 September 1935 in Shanghai) is a German thriller writer. She has written several novels, including ''Head Count'' (''Die Häupter meiner Lieben''), ''Hell Hath No Fury'' (''Der Hahn ist tot'') ...
,
Hanns-Josef Ortheil
Hanns-Josef Ortheil (born 5 November 1951, in Cologne) is a German author, scholar of German literature, and pianist.
He has written many autobiographical and historical novels, some of which have been translated into 11 languages, according to Wor ...
,
Emine Sevgi Özdamar
Emine Sevgi Özdamar (born 10 August 1946) is a writer, director, and actress of Turkish origin who resides in Germany and has resided there for many years. Özdamar's art is unique in that it is influenced by her life experiences, which straddl ...
,
Ulrich Peltzer
Ulrich Peltzer (born 9 December 1956) is a German novelist.
Life
Peltzer was born in Krefeld. Starting in 1975, he studied philosophy and social psychology in Berlin. He graduated as a psychologist in 1982. Since then he has been working as a ...
,
Christoph Peters
Christoph Peters (born 1966) is a German author of novels and short stories. His debut novel, ''Stadt Land Fluss'' was published in 1999, and won the Aspekte-Literaturpreis for the best German literary debut. It was followed by a collection of sho ...
,
Akif Pirinçci
Akif Pirinçci (; born 20 October 1959) is a Turkish-born German writer who is best known internationally for his novel ''Felidae''.
Biography
Pirinçci was born on 20 October 1959 in Istanbul, Turkey, but emigrated to Germany together with ...
,
Jutta Richter
Jutta Richter (born 30 September 1955 in Burgsteinfurt, Westfalen, Germany) is a German author of children's literature, children's and youth literature.
Richter spent her youth in the Ruhr and Sauerland and at the age of 15 she spent a year in D ...
Ralf Rothmann
Ralf Rothmann (born May 10, 1953 in Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein) is a German novelist, poet, and dramatist. His novels have been translated into several languages with Knife Edge (''Messers Schneide'') and Young Light (''Junges Licht'') being t ...
,
Frank Schätzing
Frank Schätzing (; born 28 May 1957) is a German writer, mostly known for his best-selling science fiction novel '' The Swarm'' ( 2004).
Life
Schätzing was born in Cologne and studied communication studies; he later ran his own company, a ...
Günter Wallraff
Günter Wallraff (born 1 October 1942) is a German writer and undercover journalist.
Research methods
Wallraff came to prominence thanks to his striking journalistic research methods and several major books on lower class working conditions an ...
,
Juli Zeh
Juli Zeh (, Julia Barbara Finck, née Zeh; born 30 June 1974 in Bonn) is a German writer and former judge.
Biography
Her first book was ''Adler und Engel'' (translated into English as ''Eagles and Angels'' by Christine Slenczka), which won the ...
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Jan Zweyer Jan Zweyer (born December 12, 1953, in Frankfurt (Main))Homepage NRW Literatur im Netz