Katja Oskamp

Katja Oskamp (born 20 February 1970 in Leipzig) is a German writer. She won the 2023 International Dublin Literary Award.

Personal life and education

Oskamp was born 20 February 1970 in Leipzig, Germany and grew up in Berlin.^[1][2] She studied theatre at the Theaterhochschule Leipzig (1989–1991) and literature at the German Institute for Literature (1999–2002).^[1]

Oskamp lives in Berlin.^[3][4]

Career

Oskamp began her career working as a playwright at the Volkstheater Rostock.^[1][2]

In 2000, she won her first literary prize for a short story called Rolf und Mucki und so weiter.^[1] Three years later, she debuted a short story collection called Halbschwimmer about childhood and youth in East Germany,^[2] which won the Rauris Literature Prize.^[5] In 2007, she published her first novel, Die Staubfängerin, which won her the Anna Seghers Prize.^[3]

In 2019, Oskamp published Marzahn, Mon Amour, a novel about the elderly citizens of Berlin, based on the author's own observations as a practising chiropodist in the Marzahn district, after deciding to change her career.^[6] It was her first work to be translated into English.^[2] The translation created by Jo Heinrich won the 2023 International Dublin Literary Award.^[7]

Awards

Works

• Oskamp, Katja (2005). Halbschwimmer (in German). ISBN 978-3-8333-0148-3.
• —— (2007). Die Staubfängerin (in German). ISBN 978-3-250-60111-1.
• —— (2010). Hellersdorfer Perle (in German). ISBN 978-3-8218-6110-4.
• —— (2019). Marzahn, mon amour (in German). ISBN 978-3-446-26414-4.^[4]

References