Sylvia Geist was born in Berlin in 1963. She has published several books of poetry including Vor dem Wetter (Luftschacht, 2009), and fiction, most recently a book of stories entitled Letzte Freunde (Luftschacht, 2011), as well as editing several anthologies of eastern European literature. Her translations into German include Aussicht auf eigene Schatten by Chirikure Chirikure (Wunderhorn 2011) and poems by Peter Gizzi (in Totsein ist gut in Amerika. luxbooks 2012).
She has received various awards for her work, including the Meran Poetry Prize (2002), a fellowship at the Künstlerhaus Edenkoben (2006), the Adolf Mejstrik Award of the German Schiller Foundation (2008) and a Sylt-Quelle residential fellowship (2010). (2012)