Birgit Birnbacher

Birgit Birnbacher (born 1985) worked as a social worker, sociologist and special-needs educator, including in child and youth services in Ethiopia and India. She studied social sciences in Salzburg and became a writer. Her debut novel, *Wir ohne Wal* (2016), received the Jürgen Ponto Foundation Literature Prize. In 2019, she was awarded the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize. Her subsequent novels include *Ich an meiner Seite* (2020) and *Wovon wir leben* (2023). *Ich an meiner Seite* was nominated for the German Book Prize, while *Wovon wir leben* was shortlisted for the longlist of the Austrian Book Prize and received the Bruno Kreisky Prize for the Political Book.