Jenny Erpenbeck

Jenny Erpenbeck (born March 12, 1967 in East Berlin[1]) is a German director and writer.

Contents

Life

Jenny Erpenbeck is the daughter of the physicist, philosopher and writer John Erpenbeck and the Arabic translator Doris Kilias. Her grandparents are the authors Fritz Erpenbeck and Hedda Zinner. In Berlin she attended an Advanced High School, where she graduated in 1985. She then completed a two year apprenticeship as a bookbinder before working at several theaters as props and wardrobe supervisor.

From 1988 to 1990 Erpenbeck studied theatre at the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 1990 she changed her studies to Music Theater Director (studying with, among others, Ruth Berghaus, Heiner Müller and Peter Konwitschny) at the Hanns Eisler Music Conservatory. After the successful completion of her studies in 1994 (with a production of Béla Bartók's opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle in her parish church and in the Kunsthaus Tacheles, she spent some time at first as an assistant director at the opera house in Graz, where in 1997 she did her own productions of Schoenberg's Erwartung, Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle and a world premiere of her own piece Cats Have Seven Lives. As a freelance director, she directed in 1998 different opera houses in Germany and Austria, including Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in Aachen, Acis and Galatea at the Berlin State Opera and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Zaide in Nuremberg/Erlangen.

In the 1990s Erpenbeck started a writing career in addition to her directing. She is author of narrative prose and plays: in 1999, History of the Old Child, her debut; in 2001, her collection of stories Trinkets; in 2004, the novella Dictionary; and in February 2008, the novel Visitation. In March 2007, Erpenbeck took over a biweekly column by Nicole Krauss in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Erpenbeck lives in Berlin with her son born 2002.

Prizes & Awards

Works

Plays

Jenny Erpenbeck's works have been translated into Danish, English, French, Greek, Hebrew, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Arabic and Estonian.

Literature About Erpenbeck

References

  1. ^ "Jenny Erpenbeck". New Books in German. http://www.new-books-in-german.com/english/281/217/217/129002/design1.html. Retrieved 17 April 2011. 
  2. ^ Ingeborg-Bachmann-Preis: Die AutorInnen bei den Tagen der deutschsprachigen Literatur 2001. In: ORF Kärnten. 2. Juli 2001. Retrieved on 28. Mai 2009.(German)
  3. ^ Inselschreiber: Jenny Erpenbeck : Preisträger 2006. In: Kunstraum-Sylt Quelle. Retrieved on 10. Juli 2008.(German)
  4. ^ ArcelorMittal Eisenhüttenstadt GmbH - 1. November 2010 - Verleihung Stahl-Literaturpreis 2010(German)