Michael Lentz

Michael Lentz is a German author, musician, and performer of experimental texts and sound poetry.

Life

Lentz was born in Düren. His father was city manager of Düren. Lentz completed his Abitur at the in 1983 and studied German studies, history and philosophy in Aachen and Munich. He completed his PhD in 1999; the thesis was titled Lautpoesie, -musik nach 1945. Lentz was student of Josef Anton Riedl and saxophonist in Riedl's Ensemble.
He was the winner of the 2001 Ingeborg Bachmann Prize for his book .
In May 2006, he was appointed professor for literary writing at the German Literature Institute, University of Leipzig. The genres of his work are poems, plays, radio plays, short stories and novels.
Lentz is friends with the musician Herbert Grönemeyer and published a book about him in 2024.
In 2025, an English-language edition of Schattenfroh, translated by Max Lawton, was published.
Lentz lives in Berlin and has a second home in Leipzig.
He lived in Munich for several years.