Gerhard Falkner, born in 1951, is one of Germany’s most important contemporary poets. He has published numerous volumes of poetry, including Hölderlin Reparatur (Hölderlin Repair), for which he received the Peter Huchel Prize in 2009, and Ignatien (2014). In 2008 he was awarded the Kranichstein Literature Prize for his novella Bruno. Following residencies at Villa Massimo/Casa Baldi and Akademie Schloss Solitude, he was a resident at Villa Aurora in Los Angeles in 2014. His novels Apollokalypse (2016) and Romeo oder Julia (Romeo or Julia) (2017) were critically acclaimed and stood on the long and shortlists of the German Book Prize. In 2017, he published Bekennerschreiben: Essays, Reden, Kommentare, Interviews und Polemiken (Letter of Confession: Essays, Speeches, Commentaries, Interviews and Polemics). His most recent volume of poetry, Schorfheide. Gedichte en plein air (Schorfheide. Poems en plein air) (2019), was selected as Book-of-the-Week or Month by many media. Falkner lives in Berlin and Bavaria.
 
Gerhard Falkner was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from October 2012 to July 2013.