Katja Petrowskaja

Katja Petrowskaja (born 1970 in Kyiv) is a Ukrainian-born German prose writer and journalist whose work explores memory, history, and the intersection of languages. Her literary debut, Maybe Esther (2014), which won the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, has been translated into more than twenty languages. A member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry, Petrowskaja is also a recipient of the Ernst Toller Prize (2019). Petrowskaja studied literature in Tartu and Moscow before settling in Berlin in 1999, where she writes for both German and Russian-language media. Her work consistently questions notions of belonging and truth, examining how family stories and fragmentary memories can unlock the traumatic experiences of the twentieth century.