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
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
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
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 columns – published in the newspaper between February 2022 and autumn 2024 – Katja Petrowskaja has unintentionally written a chronicle of the war in Ukraine.
It begins on the eve of...
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)
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