Anna Katharina Hahn

In 2018, Hahn was named "Mainzer Stadtschreiberin" by the television channels ZDF and 3sat, and the city of Mainz.

Her novel "Das Kleid meiner Mutter" (My mother's dress), which appeared in 2016, deals with the impact of economic crisis in Spain. It received a more mixed response from at least some of the more mainstream German critics.

Her 2012 novel, "Am Schwarzen Berg" (At the Black Mountain), deals playfully with motifs from Eduard Mörike, and was well received. The novel appeared on the shortlist for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize and the longlist for the Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize.

Her first full-length novel Kürzere Tage (Shorter Days) was published in 2009, and ranked ninth that year on a "SWR-Bestenliste".

In 2004 she took part in the Ingeborg Bachmann literary competition with her book "Kavaliersdelikt", which was listed for inclusion by Ursula März (as one of the jurors): on this occasion Hahn's book was not among the prize winners, however.

Her first texts were academic in nature and dealt with the history of bibles in the late medieval period: at around the same time her literary texts began to appear in journals and anthologies. There were also two volumes of short stories: "Sommerloch" published in 2000 and "Kavaliersdelikt" in 2004.

She attended secondary school in nearby Stuttgart. Hahn won her first literary prize while still at school, coming first in a short story competition organised by the city authorities in 1988. On leaving school she enrolled at the Hamburg University where in 1995 she gained a "Magister degree" in German studies, English studies, and European Ethnology and Folklore. From 1996 to 2001 she worked as a research assistant in the German Bible Archive and in the manuscripts department of the Hamburg State and University Library.