Feridun Zaimoglu (born in 1964 in Bolu, Anatolia) grew up in Germany and studied Art and Human Medicine in Kiel. His first novel Kanak Sprak appeared in 1995 followed by numerous other novels and short stories. Feridun Zaimoglu and Günter Senkel have written several film scripts together including Brandmal, which received the Schleswig Holstein Media Fund Award in 1998. Apart from this, Zaimoglu has worked as a columnist for various newspapers and magazines. He has received numerous prizes and awards, among them the Friedrich Hebbel Award (2002), the Jury Award at the Ingeborg Bachmann Competition in Klagenfurt for his story Häute (2003), the Adelbert von Chamisso Award and the Villa Massimo Grant (both in 2005) as well as the Grimmelshausen Award for his novel Leyla in 2007. In 2008 he was awarded the International Book Prize Corine for his novel Liebesbrand. In 2010 he was awarded the Jakob-Wassermann Literaturpreis as well as the Kieler Kulturpreis, in 2012 he received the Preis der Literaturhäuser.
