Sibylle Lewitscharoff

Sibylle Lewitscharoff (; 16 April 1954 – 13 May 2023) was a German author. She first wrote in her spare time as a bookkeeper, quitting after her first novel, Pong, appeared in 1998. Pong was successful with critics and the public, earning her the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize. It was followed by, (2009) and (2011). She received several German literary awards, including the Georg Büchner Prize in 2013, for "[re-exploring] the boundaries of what we consider our daily reality with an inexhaustible energy of observation, narrative fantasy and linguistic inventiveness.". Her father suffered from depression and committed suicide when she was eleven years old.

She obtained her Abitur from a Protestant gymnasium for girls in 1972 and then studied theology and sociology at the Free University of Berlin. The novel is named after its main character, a man who has been interpreted by reviewers as possibly being insane, and possibly not being fully human. His name originates from his ability to bounce like a ball. He is obsessed with human perfection, especially that of women, and is portrayed as a misogynist. He meets a woman called Evmarie whom he eventually marries. He puts her on a rooftop to shelter two eggs which ultimately become a boy and a girl, who in turn have their own offspring. The book ends with Pong's joyous cry as he commits suicide by jumping from the roof. The book was praised for its playful language and earned Lewitscharoff the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize. Two years after its publication, she quit her day job and focused on writing.

Her 2009 novel is partly autobiographical, and features two sisters who go to Bulgaria to bury their Bulgarian immigrant father who had committed suicide by hanging himself, while their chauffeur tries to interest them in the nature and culture of Bulgaria. The book earned Lewitscharoff the Leipzig Book Fair Prize and the Marie Luise Kaschnitz Prize.

In 2013 she received the Georg Büchner Prize for "[re-exploring] the boundaries of what we consider our daily reality with an inexhaustible energy of observation, narrative fantasy and linguistic inventiveness."

Lewitscharoff received praise for her playful mastery of language, described by the jury of the Berlin Literature Prize in 2010 as "uncommonly dense and original prose works ... that oppose all classifications with their own peculiar amalgam of humor and profundity. ... Lewitscharoff's poetic gesture is a brilliant recitative, a virtuoso rhetoric." In the speech "Von der Machbarkeit. Die wissenschaftliche Bestimmung über Geburt und Tod" she criticised what she considered medical mechanisation of reproduction and death. She voiced opposition to artificial insemination and surrogacy referring to the offspring through such methods as "twilight creatures", "half human, half artificial I-don't-know-whats". The speech caused discussion and criticism. Lewitscharoff later said she regretted a couple of phrases, but that her main points stood.

Personal life Lewitscharoff was married from 1990 to the artist . He provided illustrations to a 2013 edition of Pong. They lived in Berlin where he died in 2019. Her religious faith was shaped by her maternal grandmother, who lived with the family when she was a child. Although a Lutheran, she was influenced by the Catholic tradition on many moral issues.

Lewitscharoff was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2010. on 13 May 2023, at age 69. as Writer-in-Residence at Queen Mary University of London (2007) Marie Luise Kaschnitz Prize (2009) Leipzig Book Fair Prize (2009) Ricarda-Huch-Preis (2011) Marieluise-Fleißer-Preis (2011) Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize (2011) Georg Büchner Prize (2013) Brothers Grimm Poetics Professorship at University of Kassel (2013)

Novels 36 Gerechte. Steinrötter, Münster 1994. Pong. Berlin Verlag, Berlin 1998. Der höfliche Harald. Berlin Verlag, Berlin 1999. Montgomery. DVA, Stuttgart / München 2003. . DVA, Stuttgart 2006. . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2009. . Suhrkamp, Berlin 2011, ; als TB: Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch 4399, Berlin 2013. With Friedrich Meckseper: Pong redivivus. Insel, Berlin 2013. Killmousky. Suhrkamp, Berlin 2014.