Thomas Pletzinger was born in 1975 in Münster, Germany, graduated from Hamburg University with an MA in American Studies, and subsequently worked for publishers and a literary scouting agency in New York and Germany. He earned his MFA at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig. Read More In 2006 he participated in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, and in 2009 was the Writer-in-Residence at Deutsches Haus at NYU. His critically acclaimed debut novel, Bestattung eines Hundes (Funeral for a Dog), was published in 2008 by Kiepenheuer & Witsch. The English-language edition is forthcoming from W.W. Norton & Company. Pletzinger has received various literary awards and fellowships, including the 2009 Uwe-Johnson-Förderpreis. He teaches Creative Writing at the Swiss Literature Institute in Biel, Switzerland, and otherwise lives in Berlin, where he works as a freelance writer and translator at the literary studio adler & söhne.