Jenny Erpenbeck (born 12 March 1967) is a German writer and opera director, recipient of the

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize The ''Independent'' Foreign Fiction Prize (1990–2015) was a British literary award. It was inaugurated by British newspaper ''The Independent'' to honour contemporary fiction in translation in the United Kingdom. The award was first launched i ...

Life

Born in

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

, Erpenbeck is the daughter of the physicist, philosopher and writer John Erpenbeck and the Arabic translator Doris Kilias. Her grandparents are the authors

Fritz Erpenbeck Fritz Erpenbeck (born: Friedrich Johann Lambert Erpenbeck, 7 April 1897, Mainz – 7 January 1975, Berlin) was a German writer, director and actor. Biography Erpenbeck was born in to the family of a watchmaker and engineer. He trained as a lock ...

and

Hedda Zinner Hedda Zinner, or Hedda Erpenbeck-Zinner (20 May 1904 – 4 July 1994), was a German political writer, actress, comedian, journalist and radio director. Biography Hedda Zinner was born in Lemberg on May 20, 1904. She attended the Acting Acad ...

. In

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

she attended an Advanced High School, where she graduated in 1985. She then completed a two-year apprenticeship as a

bookbinder Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book of codex format from an ordered stack of ''signatures'', sheets of paper folded together into sections that are bound, along one edge, with a thick needle and strong thread. Cheaper, b ...

before working at several theaters as props and

wardrobe supervisor The wardrobe supervisor is responsible for overseeing all wardrobe related activities during the course of a theatrical run or film shoot. The modern title "wardrobe supervisor" has evolved from the more traditional titles of "wardrobe mistress/m ...

. From 1988 to 1990 Erpenbeck studied theatre at the

Humboldt University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

. In 1990 she changed her studies to Music Theater Director (studying with, among others,

Ruth Berghaus Ruth Berghaus (2 July 1927 – 25 January 1996) was a German choreographer, opera and theatre director, and artistic director. Life and career Berghaus was born in Dresden and studied Expressionist dance and Dance direction with Gret Palucca the ...

Heiner Müller Heiner Müller (; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postdr ...

and

Peter Konwitschny Peter Konwitschny (born 21 January 1945 in Frankfurt am Main) is a German opera and theatre director. Biography Peter Konwitschny grew up in Leipzig, where his father Franz Konwitschny was principal conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestr ...

) at the

Hanns Eisler Music Conservatory Hanns is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Hanns Blaschke (1896–1971), Austrian politician *Hanns Bolz (1885–1918), German expressionist and cubist painter *Hanns Brandstätter (born 1949), Austrian fencer * Hanns Braun (18 ...

. After the successful completion of her studies in 1994, with a production of

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as H ...

's opera ''

Duke Bluebeard's Castle ''Duke Bluebeard's Castle'' ( hu, A kékszakállú herceg vára, link=no, or ''The Blue-Bearded Duke's Castle'') is a one-act expressionist opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. The libretto was written by Béla Balázs, a poet and friend of ...

'' in her parish church and in the

Kunsthaus Tacheles The Kunsthaus Tacheles (English: ''Art House Tacheles'') was an art center in Berlin, Germany, a large () building and sculpture park on Oranienburger Straße, in the sub-neighborhood of Spandauer Vorstadt in the Mitte district. Huge, colorful ...

, she spent some time at first as an assistant director at the opera house in

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

, where in 1997 she did her own productions of Schoenberg's ''

Erwartung ' (''Expectation''), Opus number, Op. 17, is a one-act monodrama in four scenes by Arnold Schoenberg to a libretto by . Composed in 1909, it was not premiered until 6 June 1924 in Prague conducted by Alexander von Zemlinsky, Alexander Zemlinsky wi ...

'', Bartók's ''Duke Bluebeard's Castle'' and a world premiere of her own piece ''Cats Have Seven Lives''. As a freelance director, she directed in 1998 different opera houses in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, including

Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered ...

's ''

L'Orfeo ''L'Orfeo'' ( SV 318) (), sometimes called ''La favola d'Orfeo'' , is a late Renaissance/early Baroque ''favola in musica'', or opera, by Claudio Monteverdi, with a libretto by Alessandro Striggio. It is based on the Greek legend of Orpheus, and ...

'' in

Aachen Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...

, '' Acis and Galatea'' at the

Berlin State Opera The (), also known as the Berlin State Opera (german: Staatsoper Berlin), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great from ...

and

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

's ''

Zaide ''Zaide'' (originally, ''Das Serail'') is an unfinished German-language opera, K. 344, written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1780. Emperor Joseph II, in 1778, was in the process of setting up an opera company for the purpose of performing ...

'' in Nuremberg/Erlangen. In the 1990s Erpenbeck started a writing career in addition to her directing. She is author of narrative

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...

and

plays Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

: her debut novella in 1999, ''Geschichte vom alten Kind'' (''The Old Child''); in 2001, her collection of stories ''Tand'' (''Trinkets''); in 2004, the novella ''Wörterbuch'' (''The Book of Words''); and in 2008, the novel ''Heimsuchung'' (''Visitation''). In 2007, Erpenbeck took over a biweekly column by Nicole Krauss in the ''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

''. In 2015 the English translation of her novel ''Aller Tage Abend'' ( ''The End of Days'') won the

. Erpenbeck's works have been translated into Danish, English, French, Greek, Hebrew, Dutch, Swedish, Slovene, Spanish, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Arabic, Estonian and Finnish. Erpenbeck lives in Berlin with her husband, conductor Wolfgang Bozic, and her son.

Works

Novels

*''Heimsuchung'' (2008). ''Visitation'', trans.

Susan Bernofsky Susan Bernofsky (born 1966) is an American translator of German-language literature and author. She is best known for bringing the Swiss writer Robert Walser to the attention of the English-speaking world, translating many of his books and writi ...

(New Directions, 2010; Portobello, 2011). *''Aller Tage Abend'' (2012). ''The End of Days'', trans. Susan Bernofsky (New Directions, 2014; Portobello, 2015). * ''Gehen, ging, gegangen'' (2015). ''Go, Went, Gone'', trans. Susan Bernofsky (New Directions/Portobello, 2017). *''Kairos'' (2021). Trans.

Michael Hofmann Michael Hofmann (born 25 August 1957) is a German-born poet who writes in English and is a translator of texts from German. Biography Hofmann was born in Freiburg into a family with a literary tradition. His father was the German novelist Ger ...

(Granta/New Directions, 2023).

Novellas and short story collections

*''Geschichte vom alten Kind'' (1999). ''The Old Child'', trans. Susan Bernofsky. **Published with five stories from ''Tand'' as ''The Old Child and Other Stories'' (New Directions, 2005), and in ''The Old Child and The Book of Words'' (Portobello, 2008). *''Tand'' (2001). ''Trinkets''. Short stories. * ''Wörterbuch'' (2004). ''The Book of Words'', trans. Susan Bernofsky (New Directions/Portobello, 2007), and in ''The Old Child and The Book of Words'' (Portobello, 2008).

Plays

* ''Katzen haben sieben Leben'' (2000). ''Cats Have Seven Lives''. * ''Leibesübungen für eine Sünderin'' (2003). ''Physical Exercises for a Sinner''. *''Schmutzige Nacht'' (2015) *''Lot'' (2017)

Other

*''Dinge, die verschwinden'' (2009). ''Things That Are Disappearing''. * ''Kein Roman: Texte 1992 bis 2018'' (2018). ''Not a Novel: A Memoir in Pieces'', trans. Kurt Beals (New Directions/Granta, 2020).

Audiobooks

* 2016: ''Heimsuchung'' (

Novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

, read by Jenny Erpenbeck), publisher:

der Hörverlag Der or DER may refer to: Places * Darkənd, Azerbaijan * Dearborn (Amtrak station) (station code), in Michigan, US * Der (Sumer), an ancient city located in modern-day Iraq * d'Entrecasteaux Ridge, an oceanic ridge in the south-west Pacific Oc ...

, (

Audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

-Download) * 2021: ''Kairos'' (

, read by Jenny Erpenbeck), publisher:

, (

-Download)

Awards and honors

* 2001 Jury Prize at the Ingeborg Bachmann Competition in

Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...

* 2001 Several residencies (Ledig Rowohlt House in New York, Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf) * 2004 GEDOK literature prize * 2006 Winner of the Scholarship Island Writers on

Sylt Sylt (; da, Sild; Sylt North Frisian, Söl'ring North Frisian: ) is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, and well known for the distinctive shape of its shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian ...

* 2008

Solothurner Literaturpreis The Solothurner Literaturpreis is a literary award for a literary achievement by a German language writer. Awarded since 1994, the annual prize is 15,000 Swiss francs. It is named after the city of Solothurn in Switzerland. Winners *1994: Monik ...

* 2008 Heimito von Doderer Literature Prize * 2008 Hertha-Koenig-Literature Prize * 2009 Award of the North LiteraTour * 2010 Literature Prize of the Steel Foundation Eisenhüttenstadt * 2011

Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize The Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize is an annual British literary prize inaugurated in 1977. It is named after the host ''Jewish Quarterly'' and the prize's founder Harold Hyam Wingate. The award recognises Jewish and non-Jewish writers r ...

, shortlisted for ''Visitation'' * 2013

Joseph Breitbach Prize Joseph-Breitbach-Preis (Joseph Breitbach Prize) is a literary prize awarded by the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz (Academy of Sciences and Literature of Mainz), in Germany and the Joseph Breitbach Foundation. Established in ...

* 2014

Hans Fallada Prize The Hans Fallada Prize is a German literary prize given by the city of Neumünster in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Since 1981 it typically awarded every two years to a young author from the German-speaking world. It is named in honor of ...

* 2015

, winner for ''The End of Days'' (prize shared with the book's translator,

) * 2016

International Dublin Literary Award The International Dublin Literary Award ( ga, Duais Liteartha Idirnáisiúnta Bhaile Átha Chliath), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. ...

, shortlisted for ''The End of Days'' * 2016

Thomas Mann Prize Thomas Mann Prize (''German'': Thomas-Mann-Preis) is a literary prize of Germany. In full the title is "Thomas Mann Prize of the city of Lübeck and the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts". It is given in alternate years in Lübeck and in Munich. The ...

* 2017

Strega European Prize The Strega European Prize ( it, Premio Strega Europeo) is an annual literary award given to a novel in Italian translation by a European author who has received national recognition in their home country. Established in 2014, it is administered—li ...

* 2017

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

* 2018 ''Go, Went, Gone'' New York Times Notable Book List 2018 * 2019

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

ranked ''Visitation'' #90 in its list of 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. * 2022

Uwe Johnson Prize The Uwe Johnson Prize is an annual German literary award. The award is named after the writer Uwe Johnson (1934–1984) and was first awarded in 1994. It is awarded for "outstanding literary works in which there are links to the poetics of Uwe John ...

for ''Kairos''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erpenbeck, Jenny Living people 1967 births German women writers People from East Berlin Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 20th-century German women