Julia Franck is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 writer.

In 1978 Julia Franck and her family moved to West Berlin

West Berlin

West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...

 and later to Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...

. She studied German Literature and American Studies at the Free University of Berlin

Free University of Berlin

Freie Universität Berlin is one of the leading and most prestigious research universities in Germany and continental Europe. It distinguishes itself through its modern and international character. It is the largest of the four universities in Berlin. Research at the university is focused on the...

 and spent some time in the United States, Mexico and Guatemala. She worked as an editor for Sender Freies Berlin

Sender Freies Berlin

Sender Freies Berlin was the ARD public radio and television service for West Berlin from 1 June 1954 until 1990 and for Berlin as a whole from German reunification until 30 April 2003...

 and contributed to various newspapers and magazines. She lives with her children in Berlin. Franck is the granddaugher of sculptor

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

 Ingeborg Hunzinger

Ingeborg Hunzinger

Ingeborg Hunzinger was a German sculptor.Hunzinger was born Ingeborg Franck to a Jewish mother. In 1932 Ingeborg joined the Communist Party. She began her studies in arts in 1935 and was master pupil of Ludwig Kasper in 1938/39. In 1939 the Nazis prevented her from studying further and she...

.

Franck has received several awards, most notably the German Book Prize

German Book Prize

The German Book Prize is awarded annually by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, to the best German language novel of the year. The winner is awarded € 25,000, the five shortlisted authors receive € 2,500 each...

 in 2007 and the 3sat

3sat

3sat is the name of a public, advertising-free, television network in Central Europe. The programming is in German and is broadcast primarily within Germany, Austria and Switzerland .3sat was established for cultural...

 Award at the esteemed Ingeborg Bachmann Competition

Ingeborg Bachmann Prize

The Festival of German-Language Literature, formerly Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, is a literary competition which takes place yearly in Klagenfurt, Austria...

 in 2000. In 2010 The Blind Side of the Heart was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was inaugurated by British newspaper The Independent to honour contemporary fiction in translation in the United Kingdom. The award was first launched in 1990 and ran for five years before falling into abeyance. It was revived in 2001 with the financial support...

 as well as the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize

Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize

JQ Wingate Prize is an annual British literary prize inaugurated in 1977. It is named after the host Jewish Quarterly and the prize's founder Harold Hyam Wingate...

Works

• Der neue Koch (1997)
• Liebediener (1999)
• Bauchlandung (2000)
• Lagerfeuer (2003)
• Mir nichts, dir nichts (2006)
• Die Mittagsfrau (2007) (UK: The Blind Side of the Heart (2009); US: The Blindness of the Heart) (2010)
• Grenzübergänge (2009), anthology, edited by Julia Franck

Translations

Julia Franck's books have been translated into over 35 languages, including
Albanian, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Chinese, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, French, Georgian, Greek, English, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Croatian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Rumanian, Swedish, Serbian, Spanish, Catalan, Galician, Taiwanese, Czech, Turkish, Hungarian and Belarusian.

External links

• review of The Blind Side of the Heart on The Times online http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6478171.ece
• Interview with Julia Franck on The Ledge, an independent platform for world literature. Includes excerpt and audio.
• Interview with Julia Franck http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lp/prj/mtg/en4682353.htm
• Press reviews on perlentaucher.de (in German) http://www.perlentaucher.de/autoren/11/Julia_Franck.html
• Julia Franck on German Wikipedia :de:Julia Franck
• Die Mittagsfrau on German Wikipedia :de:Die Mittagsfrau