Biography

The writer Agnieszka Lessmann grew up in Poland, Israel and Germany. She has studied the German and Italian languages and literatures, as well as the science of theatre, film and tv in Cologne. Ever since she has been working as a freelance writer. Although she has been writing poetry and prose from the beginning, she has focused on writing for the Radio during the first years. To date, she has published several radio features and eight radio dramas as well as poetry and prose.

Repeatedly broadcasted by different radio stations was the biopic „Cobains Ashes“. As it integrates the biography of Kurt Cobain into a journey of his widow Courtney Love to the buddhist monks of Ithaca, N.Y., it also tells a very special love story. Likewise successful was her radio drama „Murderers“, which was elected „Radio drama of the Month“ in October 2011. Following its nomination for Prix Europa, it was translated into Polish and broadcasted by Radio Polski. It tells the story of a little girl, which moves with her parents from Israel to Germany, „the land of the murderers“, as she was told. Curious and imaginative as she is, she wants to find out where these murderers are. As her parents leave her one evening with her grandmother, she watches the tv-series „The Kommissar“, where she meets a police investigator, who can help her with her mission.

Since 2015 Agnieszka Lessmann has also been working as a teacher for integration courses for migrants. Based on her experiences with teaching she wrote the radio drama „Einstiegskurs“ and most poems of her recently published poetry book „Fluchtzustand/ State of flight“. Her work was supported by several scholarships. She lives near Cologne and is a member of PEN Germany.