Alexandra Stahl
area: Literature
Key Facts
nationality
Germanyarea
Literatureresidence
Berlinrecommending institution
BMEIAtime period
September 2024 - October 2024Alexandra Stahl, born in 1986 and raised in Bavaria, is a freelance writer and journalist based in Berlin. She studied American Studies, English Literature and History at the University of Würzburg with periods of work in New York, Washington D.C. and Stockholm. After graduating, she completed a journalistic traineeship at the German Press Agency dpa. She then worked as a news editor and reporter specialising in literature, society and travel. She has published reports from the USA, Ireland and Italy, for example. She has been a freelance author since 2020. Her debut novel ‘Männer ohne Möbel’ about the expat scene in Berlin-Neukölln was published by Jung und Jung in 2021. She received a working grant from the Berlin Senate for her short story collection ‘Wenn, dann trifft es uns beide’ (Jung und Jung), published in 2022. Her second novel ‘Frauen, die beim Lachen sterben’ (Jung und Jung) was published in 2024.
During her residency at MQ, Alexandra Stahl wants to gain some distance from her current novel project by writing short stories. Parallel to her current novel manuscript, she is also working on a collection of short stories. When the author leaves her desk in Vienna, she will, like everywhere else, be on the lookout for the offbeat and bizarre, for sentences, scenes and details that will somehow find their way into her stories. Or not. Or in the next book. You only know exactly afterwards. But for Stahl, that's the beauty of writing: You constantly surprise yourself.