Sabine Scho

Sabine Scho, born in 1970 in Ochtrup, Westphalia, is a German poet, writer, and photographer known for her innovative interplay between text and image. From 1990 to 1999, she studied German literature and philosophy at the Westfälische Wilhelms University in Münster. After periods in Hamburg and São Paulo, she now divides her time between Berlin and Rome.

Scho’s debut poetry collection, Album (2001), was praised for its precision and inventive lyricism and earned her the Leonce-und-Lena Prize in 2001, as well as the GWK Literature Prize and the Ernst Meister Prize for Poetry. Her subsequent books, including farben (2008), Tiere in Architektur (2013), and Haus für einen Boxer (2021, with Sebastian Ernst and Golden Diskó Ship), further established her as a leading voice in contemporary German poetry, often exploring the boundaries between language, photography, and visual art.

Scho’s interdisciplinary project Tiere in Architektur originated during her 2003 residency at Villa Aurora in Los Angeles and investigates the complex relationships between humans and animals within architectural spaces. Her texts and installations frequently appear at international literature festivals and museums, including appearances in Amsterdam, Berlin, Bremen, Graz, Sarajevo, Rotterdam, San Diego, and Sydney. She is also recognized for her performative collaborations, such as the “Rotten-Kinck-Schow” with Monika Rinck and Ann Cotten.

Her numerous honors include the Anke Bennholdt-Thomsen Poetry Prize (2012), the German Prize for Nature Writing (2018), and the Rome Prize of the German Academy Villa Massimo (2019/20). Scho has taught as a visiting professor at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig and held residencies at Spreepark Art Space in Berlin and the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Sabine Scho continues to shape contemporary poetry and interdisciplinary art from her bases in Berlin and Rome.