Mirjam Pressel
(born 18.06.1940 in Darmstadt, died 16.01.2019 in Landshut), writer, translator.
Mirjam Pressler grew up in a home and with foster parents. She is considered one of the most important German-language authors of children's and young people's books. Her stories are mainly about children living in difficult social circumstances. After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Frankfurt and language studies in Munich, she went to Israel for a year. After her return, she worked in various professions before she began writing books and translating from various languages, especially Hebrew. Her first novel for young people, Bitterschokolade, was published in 1980 and won the Oldenburg Children's and Young People's Book Prize. She has received many important prizes for her extensive work of translations and novels, including the German Youth Literature Prize twice, the Literature Prize of the City of Munich, the Buber-Rosenzweig Medal and the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.