Thomas Melle
Thomas Melle, born in 1975 in Bonn, studied Comparative Literature and Philosophy in Tübingen, Austin / Texas, and Berlin. In 2004, he debuted as a playwright with 4 Million Doors, written together with Martin Heckmanns (Premiere: October 1, 2004, Deutsches Theater Berlin, directed by Eike Hannemann, Suhrkamp Verlag). In 2007, his collection of stories Raumforderung was published. Since then, he has written numerous plays and novels that have received multiple awards. Thomas Melle lives in Berlin.
Prose works: Raumforderung (stories, 2007, Suhrkamp Verlag), Sickster (novel, 2011, Rowohlt Berlin Verlag), 3000 Euro (novel, 2014, Rowohlt Berlin Verlag), Die Welt im Rücken (novel, 2016, Rowohlt Berlin Verlag), Das leichte Leben (novel, 2022, Kiepenheuer & Witsch), Haus zur Sonne (novel, 2025, Kiepenheuer & Witsch).
Prizes and Awards:
- 2008 Förderpreis of Literaturpreis Bremen for Raumforderung
- 2008 Audience Award at the Festival »Gimme Shelter« for Partner
- 2009 Förderpreis from the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
- 2011 Franz-Hessel-Preis for Sickster
- Nominations (Shortlist) for the German Book Prize for 3000 Euro (2014) and for Die Welt im Rücken (2016)
- 2015 Kunstpreis Berlin in the category of Literature
- 2017 Klopstock-Award for new literature for Die Welt im Rücken
- 2017/2018 City Writer of Bergen
- 2018 Honorary Gift from the German Schiller Foundation
- 2019 Nomination for the Prix Italia for the radio play version of Bilder von uns (DLF Kultur / NDR)
- Nominations for the Mülheim Dramatist Award for Bilder von uns (2016), Versetzung (2018) and Ode (2020)
