Zoë Beck (born 12 March 1975 as Henrike Heiland in Ehringshausen in the Lahn-Dill district[1]) is a German writer, publisher, translator, dialogue book author and dubbing director. She has won multiple awards for her books and translations.
Life
At the age of three she began to play the piano. Numerous performances and multiple awards at competitions followed. After graduating from high school she studied German and English literature in Giessen, Bonn and Durham as a scholarship holder of the German National Academic Foundation.[2] She completed her studies with a master's thesis on the crime writer Elizabeth George. She then worked as an editor and TV producer for the Kirch Group. Since 2004 she has been working as a freelance author and lives in Berlin.
Beck first wrote screenplays, including the Christmas film "In der Weihnachtsbäckerei" (In the Christmas Bakery) with Rolf Zuckowski for ZDF children's television,[3] various episodes of Tabaluga tivi, Nelly Net(t) and the German version of the sitcom Disney's Kurze Pause for the Disney Channel. Since 2006 she has been publishing mainly prose as a writer.
After surviving cancer in 2007 she changed her name to Zoë Beck.[4]
Together with Jan Karsten Beck, she founded the literary publishing house CulturBooks in 2013.[5][6] The publishing house emerged from the online feuilleton Culturmag.[7]
In addition to her writing, Zoë Beck works as a literary translator and dubbing director for film and television (including Hackerville, Dietland, The Terror, The Mist, Fear the Walking Dead, Orange Is the New Black, Followers).[8][9] From September 2013 to August 2014, she was the columnist for the SWR2 programme LiteraturEN, a radio column that is awarded to a different contemporary author each year, and subsequently wrote literary reviews for the station.[10]
Zoë Beck acts as their German voice on reading tours of international authors, for example for Denise Mina, Val McDermid, Louise Welsh and Carl Nixon. She is on the board of directors of LitProm,[11] a member of the PEN Centre Germany,[12] co-founder of the feminist writers' network "Herland"[13] and co-initiator of the action alliance #verlagegegenrechts.[14] At the Leipzig Book Fair 2018 and 2019, she organised, among other things, the event series "Die Gedanken sind bunt".[15] Beck has been a member of the jury for the Kurt Tucholsky Prize since 2018.[16]
Der unglückliche Herr Dr. von und zu Wittenstein (in: Hell's Bells, Hg. Christiane Geldmacher), Poetenladen, 2008, ISBN978-3-940691-02-6
Leaving Lüdenscheid, oder: Opa muss weg (in: Mord am Hellweg IV, Hg. H. Knorr, H.P. Karr), Grafit, 2008, ISBN978-3-89425-352-3
Diese Sache in Rostock (in: Endstation Ostsee, Hg. H.P. Karr), KBV, 2009, ISBN978-3-940077-54-7
Konkurrenzausschluss (in: München blutrot, Hg. A. Izquierdo, A. Esser), Kölnisch-Preußische Lektoratsanstalt, 2009, ISBN978-3-940610-07-2
Bullets Over Bochum (in: Hängen im Schacht, Hg. H.P. Karr; KBV), 2009, ISBN978-3-940077-67-7
Hell-go-land (in: Morden zwischen den Meeren: Kleine Verbrechen aus Schleswig-Holstein, Hg. Jobst Schlennstedt), Pendragon, 2010, ISBN978-3-86532-193-0
Starnberger Strafvollzug (in: Tod am Starnberger See, Hg. Sabine Thomas), Gmeiner, 2010, ISBN978-3-8392-1103-8
Exile on Genfbachstraße (in: Nordeifel Mordeifel, Hg. R. Kramp), KBV, 2010, ISBN978-3-940077-87-5
Die Dreizehn (in: Hamburg blutrot, Hg. A. Izquierdo, A. Esser), Kölnisch-Preußische Lektoratsanstalt, 2010, ISBN978-3-940610-10-2
Zum Kuckuck! (in: Die Mütter-Mafia und Friends: Das Imperium schlägt zurück, Hg. Kerstin Gier), Bastei Lübbe, 2011, ISBN978-3-404-16043-3
Gmundner Alibi (in: Tod am Tegernsee, Hg. Sabine Thomas), Gmeiner, 2011, ISBN978-3-8392-1195-3
Onkel Horst vom Schillerplatz (in: Das Mordshaus an der Lahn, Hg. Klaus J. Frahm), KBV, 2011, ISBN978-3-942446-23-5
Pippa Goldschmidt: Von der Notwendigkeit, den Weltraum zu ordnen. CulturBooks, Hamburg 2018, expanded and revised new edition, print. ISBN978-3-95988-098-5.