Emine Sevgi Özdamar, born in 1946, is a Turkish-German author, actress, and theatre director. At the age of 12 she entered the stage for the first time, and in 1965 she came to Germany as a Gastarbeiter, working at a factory in West Berlin. After taking acting classes in Istanbul, she got her first professional roles, and engagements in Berlin (Volksbühne), Paris, Avignon, and Bochum (Schauspielhaus) followed. Her debut novel, Life is a Caravanserai: Has Two Doors I Went in One I Came out the Other, appeared in 1992 and was translated into several languages. She has authored four novels, a collection of short stories, and multiple plays. Her literary work was awarded several prestigious German prizes, such as the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize (1991), the Adalbert von Chamisso Prize (1999), and the Kleist Prize (2004).
*Photo: © Helga Kneidl.
