Sarah Kirsch

Sarah Kirsch, born Ingrid Hella Irmelinde Bernstein in 1935, was a German poet, writer, children's writer, and translator. She was a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and the German Academy for Language and Literature. Her works include *Fünfzig Erzähler der DDR*, *Katzen sprangen am Rande und lachten*, *Erklärung einiger Dinge*, *Die Unge Heura*, and *Geschlechtertausch*. She depicted nature in her poetry and wrote in German.

Kirsch received the Georg Büchner Prize, the Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis, the Order of Merit of the Free State of Thuringia, and the Samuel-Bogumil-Linde prize. She was educated at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, the German Institute for Literature, and Leipzig University. Her archives are held at the German Literature Archive Marbach. She was married to Rainer Kirsch and was unmarried partner to Karl Mickel. She died in Heide on May 5, 2013.