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Olivia Wenzel

Olivia Wenzel was born in Weimar and studied cultural studies and aesthetics at the University of Hildesheim. She is the author of theatre texts that have been performed on stage, e.g., at the Münchner Kammerspiele, the Thalia Theater in Hamburg and the Deutsches Theater Berlin. Her debut novel is 1000 Coils of Fear. The narrator – a black German woman born in the former GDR, living mostly in Berlin – is constantly in conversation with someone undefined. From the way she is addressed and the type of questions she asks, we can only guess that it is a long-dead brother, an American immigration officer, a psychologist, or a conversation with her own self. The intermittent stream of speech lends the novel a sense of disjointedness, but it fills the actual rhythm of the language. Her writing about origins, loss, the joys of life, loneliness and the roles society assigns to people is heartbreaking and humorous at the same time. 

 Olivia Wenzel