Anna Katharina Hahn

Anna Katharina Hahn was born in Ruit (Ostfildern), a small town short distance to the south-east of Stuttgart.[5]

She attended secondary school in nearby Stuttgart. Hahn won her first literary prize while still at school, coming first in a short story competition organised by the city authorities in 1988.[1] On leaving school she enrolled at the Hamburg University where in 1995 she gained a "Magister degree" in German studies, English studies, and European Ethnology and Folklore.[2] From 1996 to 2001 she worked as a research assistant in the German Bible Archive and in the manuscripts department of the Hamburg State and University Library.[1]

Her first texts were academic in nature and dealt with the history of bibles in the late medieval period: at around the same time her literary texts began to appear in journals and anthologies.[1] There were also two volumes of short stories: "Sommerloch" published in 2000 and "Kavaliersdelikt" in 2004.[6]

In 2004 she took part in the Ingeborg Bachmann literary competition with her book "Kavaliersdelikt", which was listed for inclusion by Ursula März (as one of the jurors): on this occasion Hahn's book was not among the prize winners, however.

Her first full-length novel Kürzere Tage (Shorter Days) was published in 2009, and ranked ninth that year on a "SWR-Bestenliste".[2][7][lower-alpha 1]

Her 2012 novel, "Am Schwarzen Berg" (At the Black Mountain), deals playfully with motifs from Eduard Mörike, and was well received.[2][8] The novel appeared on the shortlist for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize and the longlist for the Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize.[9]

Her novel "Das Kleid meiner Mutter" (My mother's dress), which appeared in 2016, deals with the impact of economic crisis in Spain. It received a more mixed response from at least some of the more mainstream German critics.[2][5][10]

In 2018, Hahn was named "Mainzer Stadtschreiberin" by the television channels ZDF and 3sat, and the city of Mainz.[11]

Anna Katharina Hahn is a member of PEN Centre Germany. She lives with her husband, the writer, archivist and literary scholar Jan Bürger, and their sons in Stuttgart.[12]

• Sommerloch. (2000) a book of short stories.
• Kavaliersdelikt. (2004) a book of short stories.
• Kürzere Tage. (2009), novel.
• Am Schwarzen Berg (2012) novel.
• Das Kleid meiner Mutter (2016) novel.
• Aus und davon (2020) novel.