Jan Skudlarek (1986) was born in Hamm and grew up in North Rhine – Westphalia and Spain. He lives in Berlin since 2010. His debut poetry book elektrosmog was published by luxbooks in 2013. His subsequent poetry collections were Erloshene finger (Dead Fingers, publ. by Parasitenpresse, Cologne) and 2016’s Du Hast Lippen Wie Mozart (You Have Mozart’s Lips, publ. by SuKuLTuR, Berlin). His poetry was awarded the 2017 Wolfgang Weyrauch Promotion Prize. Skudlarek is also author of philosophy books, such as Der Aufstieg des Mittelfingers (The Raising of the Middle Finger, publ. by Rowohlt, 2017), which examines the social function of insults. His most recent book is 2019’s Wahrheit und Verschwörung (Truth and Conspiracy) and explores the philosophical and psychological background of conspiracy theories and the difficulty in making a “proper” description of the world. All his contributions in this anthology were originally included in the three poetry collections mentioned above.