Uwe Kolbe was born in East Berlin in 1957. He first published his poetry in Sinn und Form in 1976. In addition to nine collections of poetry, he has also published five other works: Vaterlandkanal, a travel book; Die Situation; Renegatentermine, essays; Der Tote von Belintasch, a detective story; and Thrakische Spiele, a detective novel. Kolbe has been the recipient of the Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis Tübingen, in 1993, and the Preis der Literaturhäuser, in 2006. He has taught literature and writing at Tuebingen University, Oberlin College, and the University of Texas at Austin. He lives in Berlin-Charlottenburg.