Katja Petrowskaja
Autorenfoto zu Katja Petrowskaja
© Heike Steinweg

Katja Petrowskaja

Katja Petrowskaja was born in Kyiv in 1970. She studied at the University of Tartu, Estonia, and was also awarded research fellowships at Columbia University in New York, and Stanford in California. Katja Petrowskaja received her PhD in Moscow. Since 1999, she has lived and worked in Berlin. Her literary debut Vielleicht Esther was translated into more than 20 languages and received numerous awards.
Katja Petrowskaja was born in Kyiv in 1970. She studied at the University of Tartu, Estonia, and was also awarded research fellowships at Columbia University in New York, and Stanford in California. Katja Petrowskaja received her PhD in Moscow. Since 1999, she has lived and worked in Berlin. Her literary debut Vielleicht Esther was translated into more than 20 languages and received numerous awards.
Awards (selection)
Gustav-Regler-Preis 2023
Pushkin House Russian Book Prize 2019 (shortlist)
Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2018 (longlist)
Premio Strega Europeo 2015
Ernst-Toller-Preis 2015
»aspekte«-Literaturpreis des ZDF 2014
Preis der Leipziger Buchmesse 2014 (nominated)
Ingeborg-Bachmann-Preis 2013
Gustav-Regler-Preis 2023
Pushkin House Russian Book Prize 2019 (shortlist)
Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2018 (longlist)
Premio Strega Europeo 2015
Ernst-Toller-Preis 2015
»aspekte«-Literaturpreis des ZDF 2014
Preis der Leipziger Buchmesse 2014 (nominated)
Ingeborg-Bachmann-Preis 2013

PUBLICATIONS

Latest first
As if It Were Over
Year of Publication: 2025
Katja PetrowskajaYear of Publication: 2025

As if It Were Over

»A book I never wanted to write.«

How does war change pictures? How does it change how we see? How does it change the people who live through it or those who observe it? With her photo...

Rights sold to:

Italy (Adelphi)

The Photograph Looked Back at Me
Year of Publication: 2022
Katja PetrowskajaYear of Publication: 2022

The Photograph Looked Back at Me

An image catches the viewer’s eye and captivates her. The photograph of a ghostly plant in a book about Chernobyl. The face of a miner clouded in smoke in an exhibition in Kiev. A couple of...
Rights sold to:

France (Macula), Italy (Adelphi), Denmark (Palomar), Sweden (Glänta), Slovak Republic (Asociácia Corpus)

 

Maybe Esther
Year of Publication: 2014
Katja PetrowskajaYear of Publication: 2014

Maybe Esther

Was her name really Esther, her great-grandmother on her father’s side, who stayed behind in the empty apartment in Kiev in 1941, after her family had fled? And the Yiddish words with which she...
Rights sold to:

USA & Canada (Harper Collins US), UK & Commonwealth (Fourth Estate), Spanish world rights (Adriana Hidalgo), Chinese simplex rights (The Writers‘ Publishing House), Russia (Ivan Limbakh), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Companhia das Letras), Portuguese rights (Quetzal), France (Seuil), Italy (Adelphi), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Denmark (Tiderne Skifter), Sweden (Norstedts), Finland (Tammi), Poland (Jagiellonian University Press), Slovakia (Premedia), Bulgaria (Paradox), Estonia (Hea Lugu), Slovenia (Ebesede), Greece (Kapon), Ukraine (Knihy XXI), Georgia (Sulakauri), Israel (Carmel)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Hungary (Magvetö), Romania (Humanitas) 

Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (DAV), German Entire Radio Reading (SWR), German Book Club rights (Büchergilde Gutenberg)

DISCOVER

News

Julia Kissina and Katja Petrowskaja: On Kyiv

Authors Julia Kissina and Katja Petrowskaja are both from Kyiv. In this conversation with editor Katharina Raabe, they talk about their hometown.
News

Katja Petrowskaja receives Menschenrechtspreis 2022

The prize is awarded by the Gerhart and Renate Baum Foundation.
News
27.11.2014

Our Award-Winning Authors 2014 - A Selection

We congratulate our authors!