Julia Franck was born in East Berlin in 1970. In 1978 her family moved to West Berlin. Between 1979 and 1983 she lived in Schleswig-Holstein, before moving back to Berlin, where she has been based ever since. She has spent extended periods of time in the US and in Central America. Julia Franck studied American Literature and Modern German Literature at the Free University, Berlin. She has worked as an auxiliary nurse, a waitress, a typist and a production assistant for radio. She now works as a freelance author and journalist, writing for numerous newspapers and magazines, including Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Cosmopolitan, Brigitte and Merian.

Photo: © Jürgen Bauer

Awards:

• 1995 Winner of the Open Mike Competition
• 1998 Alfred Döblin Scholarship of the Academy of Arts
• 1999 Scholarship of the Lower-Saxony Foundation
• 2000 3sat Prize at the Klagenfurt Literary Festival
• 2004 Marie-Luise-Kaschnitz-Prize
• 2005 Roswitha-Prize
• 2005 Villa Massimo-Schorlarship
• 2007 German Book Prize for The Noonday Witch