The Judges 2008

Christoph Bartmann

Christoph Bartmann, born 1955, studied German and history in Düsseldorf and Vienna. He took his PhD in 1982. He began as a lecturer in modern German studies at Vienna University in 1983 and was later a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) foreign language assistant at the Universidade Nova, Lisbon. From 1988, he worked for the Goethe-Institut in Düsseldorf, Prague and Munich and from 1999-2006, he was director of the Goethe-Institut in Copenhagen. 2006/07 he became head of the Science and Society Department and is now director of the Culture and Information Department at the Goethe-Institut head office in Munich. He is also a literary critic for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Presse (Vienna), Literaturen and Deutschlandfunk.

Martin Ebel

Martin Ebel, born 1955 in Cologne, studied Romance languages and literature and German in Cologne, Paris and Freiburg (Brsg.). He obtained his PhD in 1985 on a subject relating to collaboration in France. From 1985-1998 he was arts editor with the Badische Zeitung in Freiburg, then a freelance literary critic for major newspapers and radio stations. He has been literary editor at the Tages-Anzeiger in Zürich since 2002. He is on the panel of judges for the SWR Bestseller List, from 2004-2007 he was a judge for the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize in Klagenfurt. Publications: Pierre Drieu la Rochelle (1985, Schäuble), Französische Gegenwartsliteratur in Deutscher Übersetzung. Ein Kompendium (1987, Niemeyer), Allein das Zögern ist human. Zum Werk von Makus Werner (2006, S. Fischer), Nackt gebadet, gejauchzt bis zwölf. Weltliteratur in Zürich (Edit., Nagel&Kimche, 2007). Martin Ebel lives in Pfaffenweiler and Zürich.

Meike Feßmann

Meike Fessmann, born 1961 in Munich, studied German, philosophy and dramaturgy in Munich and Berlin. She took her PhD on Else Lasker-Schüler and now lives in Berlin as a freelance literary critic (incl. for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Tagesspiegel). In 2006, she was awarded the Alfred Kerr Prize for Literary Criticism.

Jens Jessen

Jens Jessen, born 1955 in Berlin, studied German and art history in Berlin and Munich and was a publishing editor in Stuttgart and Zürich before beginning his career in journalism in 1988 as the feature section editor at the FAZ. In 1994, he moved to Berlin as the newspaper’s arts correspondent. From 1996 to 1999, he was in charge of the feature section at the Berliner Zeitung and since the beginning of 2000, he has been head of the feature section at the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT.

Manfred Keiper

Manfred Keiper was born in 1957 in Oldenburg i.O. He has worked in bookselling since 1978, also freelancing as a consultant and in adult education. In 1995, he took over the bookshop “andere Buchhandlung” in Rostock.

Rainer Moritz

Rainer Moritz was born in Heilbronn in 1958. He studied German, philosophy, Romance languages and literature in Tübingen where he also took his PhD. He worked in publishing from 1989 to 2004. He is now director of the Literaturhaus in Hamburg. He is an essayist and literary critic (including for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Literarische Welt, Die Presse, Deutschlandfunk, Deutschlandradio Kultur). He also lectures at the University of Arts in Berlin and at Bamberg University. He has published numerous books on literary and everyday cultural topics and is vice-president of the Marcel Proust Gesellschaft.

Michael Schmitt

Michael Schmitt, D.Phil., born 1959 in Trier, studied history, German and book business in Mainz, working for several years as a bookseller, then as a freelance editor. From1993 he was literary editor for the 3sat arts channel (from 1995 with 3sat Kulturzeit), as well as for the German TV station ZDF’s literature programme Lesen with Elke Heidenreich since 2003. His key areas are German-language and Anglo-American literature as well as children’s and teenage literature. He lectures at the Philipps University in Marburg and is a freelance literary critic primarily for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, for Literaturen and for Deutschlandfunk. He lives in Wiesbaden.