Matthias Göritz was born in Hamburg in 1969 and now lives in Frankfurt am Main. He studied philosophy and literature with prolonged periods in Moscow, Paris and Chicago. He has been awarded numerous prizes and scholarships. He has been Writer-in-Residence at Bard College, New York (2000-2002) and at the Rabat Goethe Institute, Morocco (2004), and was a guest of the University of Iowa for their International Writing Program in 2003. This, his debut novel, won him the Literaturförderpreis der Stadt Hamburg and the Maria Cassens Prize (and others). Matthias Göritz has published two volumes of poetry. Translation rights available from: Berlin Verlag GmbH Greifswalder Str. 207 10405 Berlin, Germany Tel: +49 30 44 38 450 E-mail: s.oswald@berlinverlag.de Contact: Sabine Oswald Applications for assistance with translation costs - Germany Berlin Verlag was founded in 1995 as an independent publishing house and publishes literary fiction and quality non-fiction for a wide audience and a select range of international authors. Berlin Verlag is also known for its work in developing promising, young German writers, such as the acclaimed Ingo Schulze, Elke Schmitter, Irina Liebmann, Marcus Braun and Gila Lustiger as well as Nobel Prize winner in 2004, Elfriede Jelinek's plays. Since 2003 Berlin Verlag has belonged to the Bloomsbury Publishing group.