Dorothee Elmiger studied at the Swiss Institute of Literature in Biel and spent one semester at the German Institute of Literature in Leipzig. She has been living in Berlin and Switzerland since 2009, studying political science. Elmiger was awarded the Kelag Prize at the Ingeborg Bachmann Festival 2010 for her first novel Einladung an die Waghalsigen, as well as the Aspekte Literature Prize 2010 for the best German debut prose and the Rauriser Literaturpreis 2011.