Maria Beig was born in rural Upper Swabia, in the south of Germany, in 1920. Author of eight novels and four short story collections, she won the Alemannischer Literaturpreis in 1983, the Literaturpreis of the City of Stuttgart in 1997, and the Hebbel-Preis in 2004.

Jaimy Gordon’s most recent novels are Bogeywoman and She Drove Without Stopping. In 1990, with Peter Blickle, she translated Maria Beig’s Lost Weddings.