Pol Sax

Pol Sax (born 1960) is a Luxembourg writer living in Berlin whose German-language novel U5 won the Servais Prize for Luxembourg literature in 2009.

Born on 29 January 1960 at Schifflange in south-eastern Luxembourg, Sax attended primary school in Mondercange, the École professionelle in Esch-sur-Alzette, the Ecole des arts et métiers in Luxembourg City, and the Lycée des garçons in Esch-sur-Alzette. He went on to study German and philosophy at the University of Heidelberg and at the Université libre de Bruxelles.^[1]

From 1994 to 1996, Sax was initially employed in restaurants and as an operator in a pasta factory in Heidelberg from 1994 to 1996. He then worked until 1999 as a bartender. Since 2001, he has been living in Berlin, where he works as a freelance writer, contributing reviews of German literature on authors such as Bernhard Schlink and Sven Regener.^[1]

In 2008, Pax made his literary debut with the novel U5, named after the U-Bahn in Berlin, which is the backdrop for a story of complex relationships between three marginalized figures. Artistic creation, living on the fringes of middle-class society, and the emotions such as love, loneliness, and human relationships are central features of the novel which also deals with death and guilt. In 2002, Sax was awarded a literary scholarship by the Förderkreises Deutscher Schriftsteller in Baden-Württemberg.^[1]