Jan Wagner was born in Hamburg, Germany, and lives in Berlin. He studied English and American studies at Hamburg University and at Trinity College Dublin. A literary critic and translator, he is the author of the poetry collections Probebohrung im Himmel (2001); Guerickes Sperling (2004); Achtzehn Pasteten (2007; Der Wald im Zimmer. Eine Harzreise. (In collaboration with Björn Kuhligk) 2007: Australien (2010), Regentonnenvariationen (2014 which won the Leipzig Bookfair prize, never before awarded to poetry) and Selbstporträt mit Bienenschwarm. Ausgewählte Gedichte 2001-2015 (20-16). His Self-Portrait with a Swarm of Bees, translated by Iain Galbraith appeared with Arc in 2015 and won the Popescu prize for translation.
Wagner and poet Björn Kuhligk have coedited two anthologies of German language poetry: Lyrik von Jetzt: 74 Stimmen (2003) and Lyrik von Jetzt zwei. 50 Stimmen (2008). Wagner has also translated the poetry of Simon Armitage, Charles Simic, Robin Robertson and Matthew Sweeney into German.
In 2008, Wagner was Max Kade German Writer in Residence at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. He has received the Anna Seghers Prize, the Ernst Meister Prize, and the Arno Reinfrank Literature Award.
See a Goethe Institute interview and hear him here from the Poetry Foundation discussing modern German poetry.