Francis Kirps lives and works in Lintgen (Luxembourg). He has a degree in Psychology from the University of Strasbourg. He has published two short story collections (Planet Luxembourg, 2012; Die Mutationen: 7 Geschichten und ein Gedicht, 2019) and one novel (Die Klasse von 77, 2016), and has made numerous contributions to anthologies and contemporary short story collections.
Francis Kirps has twice won the second prize in the ‘Concours Littéraire national’, in 2000 and 2001. Since 2003, he has regularly hosted and appeared at public readings and poetry slam sessions in German-speaking countries. He is the co-organiser of public readings in Luxembourg (Lesebühne) and Germany, and co-editor of the German literary magazine EXOT.
Since 2014, he has contributed to a satirical column in the German newspaper taz. His collection Die Mutationen, from which this story is taken, won the 2020 EU Prize for Literature. (2020)