Tanja Kinkel, born 1969 in Bamberg, won with 18 her first literary awards. She studied German literature, drama and mass communication and wrote her doctoral thesis about Lion Feuchtwanger’s take on power structures and Jewish identity.

In 1992, she founded the charity organization “Bread and Books” for children in order to work actively for a more humane world.

Experiences with scholarships in Rome and Los Angeles led her to be appointed as one of the founding creators for the international artist’s residence, Villa Concordia, in her hometown Bamberg; 2001 she became a founding member of the Lion Feuchtwanger Society. 2006 she became a patron of Schloss Zerben, the home of Fontane’s immortal character Effi Briest. In the same year, she was picked by a commission of the Federal Government of Germany as one of 100 people for the “Germany – country of ideas – 100 heads of tomorrow” project, which was supposed to show visitors in Germany which personalities would represent the country of poets and thinkers in the future. Since 2007 member of P.E.N. – Germany.

In the same year, she became a patron of the Federal Union of Hospices for Children. Since 2011, she was elected into the advisory board of PEN Germany. In the fall of 2011, her fourteenth novel,  DAS SPIEL DER NACHTIGALL, will be published.

Tanja Kinkel’s books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Her novels encompass the mythical foundation of Rome in the seventh century BC as well as the US in the 21^st century. Her most popular novels are: DIE LÖWIN VON AQUITANIEN, DIE PUPPENSPIELER, MONDLAUB DIE SCHATTEN VON LA ROCHELLE, UNTER DEM ZWILLINGSSTERN, DIE SÖHNE DER WÖLFIN, GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG and VENUSWURF, SÄULEN DER EWIGKEIT, IM SCHATTEN DER KÖNIGIN, DAS SPIEL DER NACHTIGALL.