Karen Köhler

“Playing is like a gym for our brains,” says Karen Köhler, inviting us to join in a game that promises unexpected adventures. “All you need is courage, curiosity, and dedication. The rest will fall into place. Ready? Set? Go!”

In her literary experiment, Karen Köhler writes about her own irrepressible desire to play, about gambling, the unconditional desire to win, about dopamine and endorphins; she draws us into her very own game with new rules. And suddenly you feel a lightheartedness that only comes from playing. The tension of life’s seriousness is loosened a little… isn’t life itself a game? Once again, in Köhler’s own words: “This is not a non-fiction book, but a ‘do’ book!”

Karen Köhler wanted to become a cosmonaut, learned to skydive, and studied acting. After twelve years in the theater, she began writing, and today she publishes plays, screenplays, radio plays, essays, short stories, and novels. Her most recent publication is the young adult novel Himmelwärts (2024), for which she received the 2025 Youth Literature Prize together with illustrator Bea Davies.