Monika Bittl

Monika Bittl completed a daily newspaper traineeship from 1982 to 1984, lived in Sicily for two years^[1] and studied German and psychology at LMU Munich from 1986 to 1992, graduating with a Magister Artium. In 1993/94, she received a scholarship from the Munich Film Academy (HFF) (screenplay workshop); From 1993, she lived as a freelance author in Munich. In 2011, she was named Munich Tower Writer.^[2] In 2014, she was the first woman to be elected "Author of Freedom" by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. As an "enormously versatile author" (Süddeutsche Zeitung), Bittl worked very successfully in various fields: She wrote screenplays, narrative non-fiction, novels, essays, journalistic articles and taught creative writing at the HFF Munich and at the "Jugend Film Fernsehen" institute.^[3]

As a screenwriter, she specialized in Bavarian material and topics. In her first five novels, she often described historical women. In the narrative non-fiction, she created tragicomic inventories of the reality of women's lives today. She also worked as a journalist, among others for the Süddeutsche Zeitung^[4] and the Focus.^[5] Until 2016 she wrote essays^[6] among others for NovoArgumente.

In September 2018, Bittl released You have to be able to let go sometimes, a British black comedy that was highly praised and described by the Buchjournal as "fast-paced, clever and hilarious".^[7]

I remembered myself as younger - reading botox for women over 40 was number one on the Spiegel bestseller list paperback for 27 weeks in 2016. It was on the Spiegel bestseller list for a total of two years^[8] and thus became a German mega-bestseller.^[9] It has been translated into Chinese, Russian and Dutch, among other languages. I want to stay as I was - happiness push-up for women over 40^[10] entered the Spiegel Paperback bestseller list in 2017 three days after its release and also became a bestseller. The follow-up titles Without my husband I would be happily married - reading wellness for women with attachments and Women never lie and don't live to 39 at the most - down-aging for beginners also entered the Spiegel non-fiction bestseller list shortly after their publication in August 2018 and December 2019.^[11] Bittl's novels You have to be able to let go sometimes and You should clean out more often also reached the Spiegel bestseller list shortly after their publication.^[12][13]

Since I remembered myself younger, a chicken has been depicted on every cover.

Bittl was married. She died at the end of October 2022 at the age of 59 and left behind a son.