Siegfried Lenz
Siegfried Lenz, born in 1926 in Lyck, East Prussia, is one of the most significant and most read writers in contemporary German literature. He has received numerous important prizes for his works, including the Goethe Prize of the city of Frankfurt am Main, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade and in 2009 the Lew Kopelew Prize for Peace and Human Rights. In addition to many novels, volumes of short stories and essays, on his 80th birthday all his short stories were published in one volume (Die Erzählungen) (title of the English translation: The Selected Stories of Siegfried Lenz), as well as the collection of essays Selbstversetzung [Self-Displacement]. In 2008 he published the novella Schweigeminute (title of the English translation: A Minute’s Silence), in 2009 the play Die Versuchsperson [The Trial Person] and Landesbühne [Native Stage], and lastly Wasserwelten [Water Worlds].