Sudabeh Mohafez *1963 in Tehran, has lived in Germany since 1979 (with a brief stint in Lisbon). She has worked for NGOs in the areas of migration support and violence prevention, and in 1999 she began to publish her short stories in anthologies and in Entwürfe and Konzepte. Since 2001 she has worked as an editor and translator, and has led writing workshops. She has been the recipient of several writers’ grants, most notably from the Robert Bosch Stiftung and from the Deutscher Literaturfonds, and of literary awards including the 2006 Adelbert-von-Chamisso-Förderpreis and the 2008 Isla-Volante-Literaturpreis. In 2008 she was nominated for the Ingeborg-Bachmann-Preis. Her major publications to date are the short story collection Wüstenhimmel Sternenland [Desert Sky, Land of Stars] (Arche Verlag: Zurich/Hamburg, 2004), in which Sediment appears, and the novel Gespräch in Meeresnähe [Conversation by the Sea] (Arche Verlag: Zurich/Hamburg, 2005). http://www.sudabehmohafez.de (2009)