Olga Grjasnowa was born in 1984 in Baku, Azerbaijan, grew up in the Caucasus, and has spent extended periods in Poland, Russia, and Israel. She moved to Germany at the age of twelve and is a graduate of the German institute for Literature/Creative Writing in Leipzig.
In 2010 she was awarded the Dramatist Prize of the Wiener Wortstätten for her debut play, Mitfühlende Deutsche (Compassionate Germans). She is currently studying dance science at the Berlin Free University. Her first novel, Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt, was awarded the Klaus-Michael Kuehne Prize and Anna Seghers Prize and was published in English as All Russians Love Birch Trees (Other Press, 2013).
