Necati Öziri

Necati Öziri, born in Germany’s Ruhr region, studied Philosophy, German and Contemporary German Literature in Bochum, Istanbul and Berlin. He was a fellow of the Heinrich Böll Foundation and taught Formal Logic at the Ruhr University Bochum until he realised that logic doesn’t describe the world very well. From 2014 to 2017 he was a dramaturg at the Maxim Gorki Theater, and for two of those years Artistic Director of Studio Я. As a curator he headed the International Forum at the Theatertreffen produced by the Berliner Festspiele. As a dramatist he has worked with Sebastian Nübling, Christopher Rüping, Julia Wissert and others and he writes for the Maxim Gorki Theater, Nationaltheater Mannheim, where he was also Writer in Residence, and Schauspielhaus Zürich. At the 45th Festival of German Language Literature (Ingeborg Bachmann Prize), he won both the Kelag Prize and the Audience Award. His novel Vatermal (Ullstein/Claassen 2023) was shortlisted for the German Book Prize, won both the Literaturpreis Ruhr and the Hölderlin Förderpreis and has already been staged by three theatres in German-speaking countries. Öziri lives and works in Berlin.