Born in Karlsruhe in 1955, Matthias Politycki now lives in Hamburg and Munich.
After completing his PhD in German literature and two years as an assistant professor, he began his career as a freelance writer in 1990. He has published more than 30 books : novels, short stories, essays, and poems. He also writes articles for newspapers and magazines, stimulates debate in the media and gives lectures both nationally and internationally.
Politycki may be one of the best-known German prose writers, but at his heart of hearts, he is a poet. Recently honoured with a hefty Collected Poems “2017-1987” by his long-term publisher Hoffmann und Campe, he continues to write metrically informed, subtly ironical, and often fabulously attentive poems about his un-digital, un-automated, human, and humane everyday life.
Among his many prizes and awards, a “non-residence” on a cruise ship stands out, which formed the basis for a satirical novel about this peculiar form of travelling. Intercultural encounters are frequently addressed in Matthias Politycki’s poems too, always in ways that defy the conventional but aim for wisdom.
Matthias Politycki has been a writer in residence in several universities in recent years, including Queen Mary University of London. He is a member of German P.E.N. and the Academy of Arts in Hamburg. (2019)
Winter 2019 (Issue 14), They say there’s several types of love
Winter 2018 (Issue 13), Ode to muesli