Für den deutschen Lebenslauf – Wikipedia.
Arezu Weitholz was born 1968 and grew up in rural Niedersachsen. She worked as a bank clerk for Deutsche Bank, studied economic sciences for two years and became a journalist at Max magazine in 1992. After an internship, she worked in the fashion-, travel- and music-department and became the magazine’s pop music editor until 1996. For one year she relocated to South Africa and played as a DJ in clubs and at parties, mostly Drum&Bass and HipHop. 1997 she returned to Europe to work for Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazine and Spiegel Spezial, the monthly magazine of DER SPIEGEL.
In 2000 she moved to London and worked there as a freelance foreign correspondent for German media, magazines and newspapers.
It was there, where German artist Herbert Grönemeyer asked her to collaborate with him on his lyrics for Mensch, the multimillion bestselling album, which is until today the most successful German record of all time, winning her 9 times platinum. Subsequently she became a lyricist for many other German bands and artists (see Wikipedia).
Her first book, a volume of fish-poems: Mein lieber Fisch, was published by an independent publishing house in 2010, she illustrated it herself. Her fish poems became an instant hit, and the book and its softcover sold about 10.000 copies. More fish poetry books followed, the last one being a “best of”, published in 2017: Der Fisch ist ein Gedicht.
Her first novel Wenn die Nacht am stillsten ist, a fictional memoir, was published in 2012 to great critical acclaim. Her second prose, again a fictional memoir, was published in 2020: Beinahe Alaska. The story about a woman travelling to Alaska and not getting there, won her the Hans Fallada literature awards in 2022.
In 2022 she wrote Zu Mensch, an illustrated novel about the “making of” the album Mensch, together with German illustrator Katrin Funcke. It is the biography of an album and unique in its form.
Her writing and her illustrations have appeared in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, the Sunday edition of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, as well as in women’s magazines.
She currently works and lives in Berlin and Schleswig-Holstein. Her next book Hotel Paraíso will be published late summer 2024 by mare.
Foreign Rights:
Fish poetry, Zu Mensch: Kunstmann Verlag
Beinahe Alaska: mare Verlag
Wenn die Nacht am stillsten ist: something@elvislebt.com
Lyrics: Grönland Records
Illustrations: something@elvislebt.com