Tawada, Yoko (Germany, Japan)

Yoko Tawada was born in Tokyo in 1960 and studied literature (main subject: Russian literature) in Japan. She has been living in Germany since 1982, completing a doctorate in Modern German Literature with Sigrid Weigel in Hamburg. Yoko Tawada writes essays, prose, plays for the theatre, radio plays and poetry in German and Japanese. She has received many awards, including the Goethe Medal in 2005. During 2011, Yoko Tawada has held a guest professorship for intercultural poetry in Hamburg.

In her second children’s play, Mein kleiner Zeh war immer ein Wort, written for the Flensburg theatre workshop Pilkentafel, Yoko Tawada develops ever new worlds from the letters of the alphabet. It was nominated for the German Children’s Theatre Prize 2010 and also for the KinderStückePreis 2011.