Daniel Kehlmann © Copyright Heike Steinweg

Daniel Kehlmann [Germany]

Daniel Kehlmann was born in Munich in 1975. He studied philosophy and literature in Vienna at the Kollegium Karlsburg.In 2005, he published Die Vermessung der Welt (tr: Measuring the World) which became an international bestseller that was translated into forty languages. In 2009, Kehlmann released Ruhm. Ein Roman in neun Geschichten (tr: Fame: A Novel in Nine Episodes), a decidedly contemporary text that looks playfully at issues of identity against the background of various dilemmas involving modern means of communication. In Tyll(2017), Kehlmann resurrects a legendary historical figure – Tyll Ulenspiegel – and a world that has come apart at the seams. In 2020, the English translation of the book was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. His latest novel, Lichtspiel, was published in 2023.Kehlmann has also written texts for the theatre and, in 2011, his play Geister in Princeton (tr: Ghosts in Princeton) celebrated its premiere at the Salzburg Festival, before being performed at the Schauspielhaus theatre in Graz. His second play Der Mentor (tr: The Mentor) premiered in November 2012 at the Wiener Theater in der Josefstadt under the direction of Herbert Föttinger. Kehlmann has also lectured on poetry at several academic institutions, among these, Wiesbaden University of the Applied Sciences, Göttingen University, the University of Cologne, and New York University. He has been honoured with numerous prestigious awards, including the Thomas Mann Prize (2008), the Nestroy Theater Prize (2012), the Friedrich Hölderlin Prize of the City of Bad Homburg (2018), and the Schubart Literature Prize (2019).He lives in Berlin and New York.