On Me

© Heike Steinweg

Sasha Marianna Salzmann

born in Volgograd in 1985
lived in Moscow until 1995
then here and there in Germany
and right now in Berlin

Highlights

200 Women

2026

  • Co-curation and co-moderation of the literature format “Umbrüche” at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg
  • Guest lecturer at the Berlin University of the Arts
  • Speech at the “kindly Invited” festival symposium at the COMEDIA Theater in Cologne
  • guest speaker at CCCB Barcelona
  • Reading tour through Vietnam
  • Opening of the asphalt Festival in Düsseldorf
  • Poetry Lecture in Hannover

2025

  • Featured in *Der Spiegel*
  • Participation in *poetica 10*
  • Guest lecturer at the Berlin University of the Arts
  • Stefan Zweig Poetry Lecture in Salzburg

2024

  • Kleist Prize (acceptance speech)
  • Ludwig Mülheim Theater Prize
  • Publication of *GLEICHZEIT*, a correspondence with Ofer Waldman
  • *Reading Kafka: Gay Literacy, Thoughts on Kafka* (essay published by S. Fischer)
  • *Riba Faronika* (short story published in *DELFI*, a magazine for new literature)
  • Guest lecturer at the German Literature Institute Leipzig
  • Dramatization of *Glorious People* at Stadttheater Konstanz
  • Co-Curation the festival “What Would James Baldwin Do” together with René Aguigah, Julia Alfandari, and Gürsoy Dogtaș
  • The play *Danja, My Demented Century* at the Salzburg Festival
  • The play *Danja, My Demented Century* at the Maxim Gorki Theater
  • *GLEICHZEIT* book tour
  • Trying to write a novel (don’t ask)

2023

  • Guest professor at the Arts School for Media, Cologne
  • The essay The Great Hunger and the Long Silence is shortlisted for WORTMELDUNGEN-Literaturpreis
  • Writer in residence at the Deutschen Haus at NYU, New York
  • Member of The Academy of Science and Literature, Mainz
  • Glorious People is staged at Staatstheater Nürnberg
  • Glorious People is staged at Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin
  • Glorious People is staged at Münchener Kammerspiele
  • Writer in residence at MuseumsQuartier, Wien
  • Curation of Utopia Eastern Europe together with Max Czollek
  • Tries to write a novel, don´t ask

2022

  • Prize of the Houses of Literature
  • Hermann Hesse Literature Prize for Glorious People
  • Glorious People reading tour
  • Glorious People is adopted for the stage Thalia Theater Hamburg
  • Glorious People in Theater Magdeburg
  • Laudatory speech for Maria Stepanova and Olga Radetzkaja (Brücke Berlin Preis)
  • Laudatory speech for Serhiy Zhadan (Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels)
  • Guest professor at the Arts School for Media, Cologne

2021

  • The second novel Glorious People is published by Suhrkamp Verlag
  • Glorious People longlisted for the German Bookprize
  • Glorious People top of ORF-Bestenliste
  • Glorious People Number 1 on SWR-Bestenliste
  • Teaching at University of Arts, Wien
  • Teaching at Deutsches Literaturinstitut, Leipzig
  • Teaching at the University of Arts Berlin
  • Curation and hosting of Queer.(l)it for the Literaturhaus Bremen

2020

  • Berlin Art Prize for Performing Arts
  • Ricarda Huch Poetics Lectureship for “Gender in the Literary World”
  • awarded a scholarship of Deutschen Literaturfonds
  • writing a second novel, oy wey

2019

  • Beside Myself international reading tour
  • Beside Myself on the Shortlist for Premio Strega Europeo
  • Beside Myself on the Shortlist for The Angelus Central European Literature Award
  • Laudatory speech for Nan Goldin (receiving Ruth Baumgarte Prize)
  • Poetics-Lecture at the University of Johannes-Gutenberg Mainz
  • Afterword for the new translation of James Baldwin´s Giovannis Room
  • Premiere of Meteoriten am Teatro El Grito in Buenos Aires
  • Directing Sivan Ben Yishai´s Or: You Deserve Your War (Eight Soldiers Moonsick) at Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin – nominated for the Friedrich-Luft-Prize as the best staging of the year
  • Co-curation of Apropos Gegenwart at the Burgtheater Wien
  • Teaching playwrighting at the University of Arts Berlin

2018

  • Beside Myself: book tour of German-speaking countries
  • Artistic director of creative-writing workshop ‘War in Peace’ at Studio Я
  • Premiere of Beside Myself at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin
  • Mother Tongue Mameloschn awarded Nestroy Drama Prize for Best Fringe Production

2017

  • Premiere of Ich, ein Anfang (‘Me, a Start’) at the Schauspiel Frankfurt
  • Premiere of Eight Easy Steps to Understanding Jihadism at the Youth Theatre Basel and the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin
  • Artistic director of creative-writing workshop ‘War in Peace’ at the Literary Colloquium Berlin
  • Artistic director of the ‘Radical Jewish Culture Days’ at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin
  • Debut novel Beside Myself published by Suhrkamp Verlag

2016

  • Premiere of Meteorites at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin
  • Artistic director of the ‘Dis-integration Congress’ at Studio Я
  • Premiere of Die Aristokraten (‘The Aristocrats’) at the Schauspielhaus Hanover
  • Artistic director of creative-writing workshop ‘Shaped by Escape’ at Studio Я

2015

  • Premiere of Wir Zöpfe(‘Braided’) at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin
  • Premiere of Mother Tongue Mameloschnat Saarbrücken Theatre
  • Premiere of Weltrettungsauftrag(‘Mission to Save the World’) at the Mozarteum in Salzburg

2014

  • Founds New Institute for Writing for the Stage with Maxi Obexer and launches creative-writing workshop ‘Shaped by Escape’
  • Premiere ofMother Tongue Mameloschn at OST in Stuttgart
  • Premiere ofMother Tongue Mameloschn at the Kosmos Theatre in Bregenz

2013

  • Artistic director of the Gorki’s studio theatre, Studio Я
  • Mülheim Audience Award for Mother Tongue Mameloschn
  • Premiere of Schwimmen lernen(‘Learning to Swim’) at the Staatstheater in Heidelberg
  • Premiere of Schwimmen lernen (‘Learning to Swim’)at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin
  • Premiere of Kasimir andKaroline (freely adapted from Horváth) at the Staatstheater in Düsseldorf
  • Artistic director (together with Deniz Utlu) of creative-writing workshop on new German plays at Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, Berlin

2012

  • Kleist Prize for Young Dramatists for Muttermale Fenster Blau (‘Birthmarks Windows Blue’)
  • Residency at Tarabya Cultural Academy in Istanbul
  • Premiere of Beg your Pardonat Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, Berlin
  • Premiere of Muttermale Fenster Blau (‘Birthmarks Windows Blue’) at the Ruhr Festival in cooperation with the Badisches Staatstheater
  • Premiere of Rot werden (‘Turning Red’) in the Studio Theatre, University of the Arts, Berlin
  • Premiere of Mother Tongue Mameloschnat the Deutsches Theater Berlin
  • Production of WhiteBreadMusic at the Wallgraben Theatre in Freiburg

2011

  • Premiere of Satt (‘Fed Up’) at the Bavarian State Theatre in Munich
  • Premiere of Weltrettungsauftrag(‘Mission to Save the World’) at the Eisfabrik Hanover
  • Premiere of Tod eines Superhelden (‘Death of a Superhero’)at Ballhaus Naunynstrasse Berlin
  • Premiere of the short play Massensterben der Möglichkeiten (‘Mass Extinction of Possibilities’) at the Deutsches Theater Berlin
  • Production of Satt (‘Fed Up’) at the Casa Nova Theatre in Essen

2010

  • Premiere of WhiteBreadMusic at the BAT Berlin
  • Austrian premiere of WhiteBreadMusic at the Nestroyhof Theatre in Vienna

2009

  • Premiere of geistern folgen (‘following ghosts’) at Hanover Regional Court