Julia Franck was born in East Berlin and moved with her family to West Berlin in 1978. She now works as a freelance author and journalist, and to date has had three novels and two short story collections published. Julia Franck won the 3Sat Prize at the esteemed Ingeborg Bachmann Competition (2000), the Roswitha Preis from the city of Bad Gandersheim and has recently completed a writing fellowship at the Villa Massimo in Rome. Her newest novel, entitled Die Mittagsfrau (2007), won the Deutsches Buchpreis and her 2005 novel Lagerfeuer will be adapted for the screen later this year. (2007)