Clemens Meyer

Clemens Meyer
Meyer at the Leipzig Book Fair in 2010.
Born	(1977-10-03) 3 October 1977 Halle an der Saale, Saxony-Anhalt, East Germany
Occupation(s)	Author, screenwriter
Notable work	As We Were Dreaming In the Aisles
Website	www.meyer-clemens.de

Clemens Meyer (born 1977) is a German writer. He is the author of Als wir träumten (As We Were Dreaming, 2006), Die Nacht, die Lichter (All the Lights, 2008), Gewalten (Acts of Violence, 2010), Im Stein (Bricks and Mortar, 2013), and Die stillen Trabanten (Dark Satellites, 2017). Of Meyer's works, All the Lights, Bricks and Mortar, “As We Were Dreaming,” and Dark Satellites have been translated into English.

Early life

Meyer was born on 20 August 1977 in Halle an der Saale. His studies at the German Literature Institute, Leipzig, were interrupted by a spell in a youth detention centre. He worked as a security guard, forklift driver and construction worker before he became a published novelist.

Work

Meyer won a number of prizes for his first novel Als wir träumten (As We Were Dreaming), published in 2006, in which a group of friends grow up and go off the rails in East Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He received the Rheingau Literatur Preis in 2006. It has been adapted into a film As We Were Dreaming, released in 2015.

His second book, Die Nacht, die Lichter (All the Lights, 2008), was translated by Katy Derbyshire and published by independent London publisher And Other Stories in 2011. It won the Leipzig Book Fair Prize in 2008. His third book, Gewalten (Acts of Violence), is a diary of 2009 in eleven stories.

His 2013 novel Im Stein (Bricks and Mortar) was translated by Katy Derbyshire and included in the long list for the International Man Booker Prize. The novel won the prestigious Bremer Literaturpreis in 2014, and was shortlisted for the Deutsche Buchpreis in 2013. The English translation won the "Straelener Übersetzerpreis" of the Kunststiftung NRW in 2018 and was shortlisted for the 2019 Best Translated Book Award.

His third novel, Die Projektoren, was in 2024 also shortlisted for the Deutsche Buchpreis. When he again failed to win, he called the jury "bloody wankers" ("verdammte Wichser") and left the prizegiving ceremony, explaining later that he considered the decision "a shame for literature".[1]

Awards

• Winner of the Leipzig Book Fair Prize 2008
• Winner of the German Screenplay Award 2015 for In the Aisles

Bibliography

Novels

• Als wir träumten (2006). trans. Katy Derbyshire, While We Were Dreaming, London: Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2023. ISBN 978-1-8042-7028-8
• Im Stein (2013). trans. Katy Derbyshire, Bricks and Mortar, London: Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2016
• Die Projektoren (2024). S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main. ISBN 978-3-10-002246-2 [2]

Short stories and collected writings

• Die Nacht, die Lichter (2008). trans. Katy Derbyshire, All the Lights, London: And Other Stories, 2011. ISBN 978-1-908276-01-8
• Gewalten (Acts of Violence, 2010)
• Der Untergang der Äkschn GmbH: Frankfurter Poetikvorlesungen (The Downfall of Action Ltd.: Frankfurt poetics lectures, 2016)
• Die stillen Trabanten (2017). trans. Katy Derbyshire, Dark Satellites, London: Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2020.

Other publications

• Zwei Himmelhunde: Irre Filme, die man besser liest (Movies that you better read, with Claudius Nießen, 2016)

Filmography

Screenplays

• Herbert (directed and co-written by Thomas Stuber, 2015)
• Der Dicke liebt (short film, directed and co-written by Alexander Khuon, 2016)
• In the Aisles (directed and co-written by Thomas Stuber, 2018)
• Tatort: Angriff auf Wache 08 (TV film, directed and co-written by Thomas Stuber, 2019)

Acting roles

• Als wir träumten (2015)
• Herbert (2015)
• In the Aisles (2018)
• Tatort: Angriff auf Wache 08 (2019)

External links

• Official website