Jurij Koch

Jurij Koch was born in 1936 in Horka in Upper Lusatia, the son of a Sorbian stoneworker’s family. He studied journalism and theatre studies in Leipzig, then worked as an editor and reporter for Sorbian Radio in Cottbus. From 1976, he worked as a freelance writer, dramatist and journalist. Koch wrote in both Sorbian and German and produced prose, plays, radio dramas, documentary film scripts and children’s literature. His essays focused particularly on ecological issues and the destruction of landscapes. His awards included the Jakub Bart-Ćišinski State Prize (1979), the Carl Blechen Prize (1983) and North Rhine-Westphalia’s Literature Prize for Environmental Writing (1992).