Helena Janeczek was born in Munich into a Jewish-Polish family and has lived in Italy for thirty-five years. After making her debut with a book of poems, she chose Italian as her literary language for works of fiction that often investigate relations with the historical memory of the past century. She has won numerous awards such as the Premio Bagutta Opera Prima and the Premio Napoli. She co-founded the blog Nazione Indiana and has collaborated with various literary magazines and newspapers, including La Repubblica, L’Unità, Pagina99 and L’Espresso. Together with four friends she organizes the literary festival SI-Scrittrici Insieme which this year was held in Somma Lombardo (VA). Her latest novel, La ragazza con la Leica (2017, Guanda) was a finalist at the Campiello Prize and won the Bagutta Prize and the Strega Prize 2018.