Navid Kermani was born in Siegen in 1967. He studied Islamic Studies, Philosophy and Theatre Studies at universities in Cologne, Cairo and Bonn. He completed his doctorate in Islamic Studies. He has worked as a dramaturge for the Theater an der Ruhr and the Schauspielhaus Frankfurt and as a writer for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (1995-2000). Most recently he was a Long Term Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin. He now lives and works as a freelance writer in Cologne. He was awarded the Ernst Bloch Prize for his book Gott ist schön - Das ästhetische Erleben des Koran. Navid Kermani is of German and Iranian nationality.

Photo: © Villa Massimo

Awards:

• 2000 Ernst Bloch Prize
• 2003 Annual Prize of the Helga and Edzard-Reuter Foundation
• 2007 Awarded the Public’s Prize at the Munich ‘Wortspiele’ Festival
• 2008 Villa Massimo Scholarship in Rome