Ralf Rothmann was born in 1953 in Schleswig and grew up in the Ruhr area. After completing secondary school and briefly attending business school, he served an apprenticeship as a bricklayer, worked in construction for several years and then worked in a number of fields – as a printer, nurse and chef, among other things. He has lived in Berlin since 1976.

Photo: © Jerry Bauer / Suhrkamp Verlag

Awards:

• 1986 Culture Prize of the Mark Brandenburg
• 1989 Promotion Prize of the Federation of German Industries
• 1992 19th writer-in-residence, Bergen-Enkheim
• 1992 Mara Cassens Prize of the Hamburg Literature House for a first novel
• 1996 Ruhr Literary Prize
• 2001 Hermann Lenz Preis
• Poet in Residence:
  Oberlin College, Ohio
  New York University
  University of Essen
  
• 2002 Kranichstein Literature Prize
• 2003 Protestant Book Prize
• 2004 Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize
  Rheingau Literature Prize
• 2005 Heinrich Böll Prize of the City of Cologne
• 2007 Erik Reger Prize