Ulla Lenze, born 1973 in Mönchengladbach, studied music education and philosophy in Cologne and now lives in Berlin. Her debut novel, Schwester und Bruder (Sister and Brother) (DuMont 2003), won several awards, including the Jürgen Ponto Prize for the best debut novel and a prize at the Klagenfurt Bachmann Competition. In 2008 the novel Archanu was published by Ammann Verlag, followed in 2012 by the novel Der kleine Rest des Todes (What Little Remains of Death) published by Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt, and in 2015 by the novel Die endlose Stadt (The Endless City), which brings the metropolises of Berlin, Istanbul, and Mumbai in relation to each another. Lenze has been writer-in-residence in Damascus, Istanbul, Mumbai, and Venice, led writing workshops, and worked as a curator and moderator. Her work has received numerous awards, and in 2016 she was given the Literature Prize of the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft for her complete work.
 
Ulla Lenze was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from May to August 2019.