Michael Köhlmeier is an Austrian freelance writer. He studied German Philology and Political Science in Marburg, as well as Mathematics and Philosophy in Gießen and Frankfurt, Germany. Köhlmeier writes novels, (short) stories, radio plays, and songs. He is renowned for his talent in telling antique legends and native myths as well as biblical stories. He received numerous awards for his books, inter alia, the Johann-Peter-Hebel-Prize, the Manès-Sperber-Prize, and the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art (First Class). Most recently, in 2017, he was honoured with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Prize for Literature and the Marie Luise Kaschnitz-Prize for his complete oeuvre, and in 2019 he received the Ferdinand-Berger-Prize for his political engagement.