Martin Jankowski is a Berlin-based writer and poet who started in the 80s as a singer-songwriter in the oppositional underground of Leipzig. His texts were banned by the Stasi. Nevertheless, his songs and poems became popular during the legendary “Monday demonstrations” that led to the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the GDR. After 1989 he published poetry books (2005 and 2012), a collection of tales and short stories (2005), essays (e.g. The day that changed Germany 2007), three nonfiction books and a novel (Rabet, 1999). His works were translated into 14 languages and received awards such as the annual German Literary Science and Philosophy Prize (1998) and the Alfred Döblin Scholarship of the German Academy of Arts (2006). He is a regular guest of international universities and festivals; he curates international culture projects, chairs the Berliner Literarische Aktion e.V. and hosts regular literary salons.
“Jankowski belongs to the most interesting voices of a new generation of East-German writers…” (Caroline Wyatt, BBC). (2013)