Felix Longolius was born in 1980. He studied journalism in Hamburg, had a job in the IT-department of a publishing house and would be in a very different place today if he had not been diagnosed with schizophrenia 22 years ago. Very few admit to the illness from which around 51 million people suffer worldwide. Today we know that among other Chopin, Munch and the mathematician and Nobel laureate Nash suffered from the personality disorder. In February 2016 Felix Longolius made his illness public by talking to a large weekly newspaper.

Judith Langhans was born in 1966 in Cologne and studied journalism, German philology and musicology. She worked for various radio stations, was a lecturer for the Munich school for journalists and subsidiary managing editor at the Axel Springer TV News GmbH (bild.de, SAT1 24 stunden and others). As of 2002 she is the subsidiary chief manager in the show department of the I & U TV GmbH Cologne and is responsible for the stations RTL and Vox and for programs like Die ultimative Chartshow, stern TV-Reportage, Typisch Frau, Typisch Mann.

From 1979 to 2013, Ernst-Dieter Lantermann was a professor of Social and Individual Psychology at the University of Kassel. Visiting professorships led him also to Leipzig, Mannheim, Bern, Zurich and to the Potsdam Institute for the Research of the Climate Impact. Lantermann is the author and editor of numerous articles and professional publications, and for several years now he is researching, together with the sociologist Heinz Bude, about the background and consequences of social exclusion and the emotional culture of distrust in Germany.

Isabelle Lehn was born in Bonn and lives in Leipzig. She studied in Tübingen and Leicester, graduated in Rhetorics and currently is researching at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig about the education of writers in the GDR. Her stories and essays were honoured several times, recently with the Edit Essay Award and in 2014 with the PROSANOVA Audience Award. Her debut novel Tie two birds was published in July 2016 at Eichborn and in the same year found itself on the short list for the Ingeborg Bachmann Award.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Albrecht von Lucke was born in 1967 in Ingelheim am Rhein. He studied law and political science in Würzburg and Berlin, where he lives since 1989. He is editor of the Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik and otherwise works for the radio, contributing political comments or participating at discussions (ARD-Presseclub, for instance). In 2008, 68 oder neues Biedermeier: Der Kampf um die Deutungsmacht was published, and in 2009 Die gefährdete Republik: Von Bonn nach Berlin 1949 - 1989 - 2009, both books at Wagenbach. In 2014, von Lucke received the advancement award of the Lessing Award for criticism, nominated by Hans-Ulrich Wehler.

Wigbert Löer, born 1972 in Soest, worked as a pupil and in community service for the Westfalenpost. During and after his studies of political sciences with Franz Walter at the University of Göttingen (subsidiary subjects: history and cultural anthropology), he worked at the SPD campaign headquarters »Kampa '98« in Bonn for eight months. Since 1999 he attended the Henri Nannen School for Journalism in Hamburg. He became a news deskman at stern, then a freelance journalist for, among others, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC and VIEW. He returned to the stern as a sports deskman and today still works there as a member of its team for investigative research.
Wigbert Löer wrote the books Nicht nur La Belle. Das Leben der Cordula Grundmann (2003), Muskelmacher (together with Jörg Börjesson, 2011) und Zockerliga (together with Rainer Schäfer, 2011).

Sascha Lehnartz was born in 1969 in Remscheid. He studied comparative literature in Paris, Berlin, Santa Barbara and New York and obtained his PhD from Columbia University. He was an editor for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and collaborator for  Süddeutsche Zeitung-Magazin.
He now lives in Paris and works as correspondent for DIE WELT.

V. K. Ludewig was born to a master smith and a psychiatric nurse in Goslar. An early childhood experience – his birth – already proved to be defining: The gynaecologist who brought him into the world bore the name Dr. Frankenstein. Ludewig spent his childhood and youth in an idyllic village at the foothills of the Harz, in which a private psychiatric hospital even today is still the biggest employer. He loved to escape from reality by means of Hollywood horror movies from the 30's and 40's as well as all movies Marylin Monroe or Bette Davis played a role in (or even both of them – in All about Eve!).
After graduating from high school, he immediately headed for Berlin, where he studied English literature. During his studies he worked in classical student jobs with the exception of gastronomy – he could not remember the orders well enough. After finishing his master (his master thesis dealt with the metamorphoses of Dracula from Stoker to Coppola, another favourite subject was »the dead and deadly woman in English romanticism«) he ran an indie label devoted to love songs for several years.

To broaden the variety of his activities, he managed the public relations of a notable porn queen und wrote scripts for embarrassing TV shows. To get a little more of the »gothic« into his life, he accepted assignments as a ghost writer and had various book publications and collaborations as »Volker Ludewig«.
The novel Ashby House kicked off a new creative period, which is why he changed his author's name into »V. K. Ludewig«. The genre of »new gothic« feels like a homecoming to him. And the story with Dr. Frankenstein somehow makes sense now, too.

Kerstin Lücker was born 1974 in the Palatine and grew up right at the German Weinstraße. She studied musicology, philosophy and Slavic Literature in Dresden, Brno (Cz) and Vienna and took her doctoral degree in music theory. She lives as a freelance author, translator and editor in Berlin.

Gudrun Lerchbaum, born 1965, grew up in Vienna, Paris and Düsseldorf and studied philosophy and architecture. Together with her patchwork family, she lives in Vienna and works as a freelancer in the fields of architecture, graphics and art.
As of 2006, she writes novels and short stories, which were published in several small editing houses and anthologies. Her historical novel Die Venezianerin und der Baumeister will be published in january 2015 by Aufbau.