Tanja Graf (publisher)

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Tanja Graf (2016)

Tanja Graf (born 1962 ) is a German publisher , editor and cultural manager. She was a co-founder of the former SchirmerGraf Verlag (2004) and founder of Graf Verlag , which belonged to the Ullstein book publishers from 2010 to 2015 . From March 2015, she initially went to Diogenes Verlag in Zurich. On July 1, 2016, she took over the management of the Literaturhaus München .

Education and private matters

Graf grew up near Munich; she passed her Abitur in 1981 at the Kurt-Huber-Gymnasium Graefelfing. Her father Hansjörg Graf was an editor and program manager at List Verlag and a freelance literary critic. 1981–82 she completed a study abroad (“Cours de Civilization Française”) in Paris (Sorbonne); 1982–84 followed an apprenticeship as a retail bookseller in Munich. Then she studied Romance studies, modern German literature and theater studies in Munich. The master's degree took place in 1989 with a thesis on Stendhal's unfinished novels. 1989–1990 she completed several months of publishing internships in Paris (Albin Michel) and New York (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Macmillan).

Tanja Graf is in a relationship with the writer Patrick Süskind and has a son with him.

Editor and publisher

From 1990 she worked as a lecturer for foreign fiction at Piper Verlag . Here she was promoted to program manager for fiction and finally to head editor and took on overall responsibility in this area.

When Piper changed management in 2003, she and the Munich art publisher Lothar Schirmer founded the SchirmerGraf Verlag, which, in contrast to mass-produced goods, focused on beautifully crafted books. Both brought in a six-figure budget in equal parts and took a two-year start-up phase. Tanja Graf and Lothar Schirmer choose a floating beech leaf as their logo.

In October 2009 Tanja Graf separated from her partner Lothar Schirmer by mutual agreement and in 2010 founded Graf Verlag, which belongs to the Ullstein book publishers .

The publisher describes her goal on the publisher's website: “Our goal is to create the best conditions for authors and their books with a publishing signature, particularly beautiful furnishings and the marketing and sales force of a large company. We see ourselves as an author publisher whose profile is shaped by its authors. We are planning a literary, entertaining, varied program that will introduce new German-language and internationally successful literature and will also continually rediscover modern classics. "

Her discoveries in German-language literature include: a. Lena Gorelik, Daniela Krien.

Head of the Munich Literature House

Tanja Graf has been managing director of the Literaturhaus München since July 1, 2016 , where she continues her work as a literary mediator - with around 200 events per year and international authors such as Salman Rushdie, Siri Hustvedt, Michael Ondaatje, etc. Further programmatic focal points at the Literaturhaus: Literature Exhibitions (most recently in 2019: “Christoph Niemann: In the eye of the beholder” and “Alexander Kluge: The poetic power of theory”); Writing academy for authors, writing and translation workshops for schoolchildren, practice-oriented open seminars for creative writing.

Numerous collaborations with municipal, state and private cultural institutions, including LMU Munich, NS Documentation Center , Institute for Contemporary History, Evangelical City Academy Munich , Max Planck Institute, DOK.Fest Munich, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra , and much more.

Awards and jury activities

Member of numerous juries and committees, including a .: Jury cultural honorary award of the City of Munich since 2016, Kuratorium Villa Concordia Bamberg since 2016, Jury German Book Prize 2018, Jury Marie-Luise-Kaschnitz-Prize 2019.

Managing Director of the Munich Literature Festival since 2016

Award: Chevalier des Arts et Lettres

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tanja Graf about her new publishing house at Ullstein , accessed on February 25, 2012.
  2. ↑ Tanja Graf changes to the Ullstein book publishers , accessed on October 6, 2012.
  3. ↑ Tanja Graf changes to Diogenes , Börsenblatt dated November 12, 2014, accessed March 13, 2019.
  4. ^ NN: Tanja Graf becomes the new head of the Literaturhaus , muenchen.de from January 13, 2016, accessed on March 15, 2016.
  5. ↑ Who speaks of reading, acquiring is everything , accessed on February 25, 2012.
  6. ↑ Patrick Süsskind can be seen , accessed on February 25, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Count, Tanja
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher and editor
DATE OF BIRTH 1962