Maryam Aras (1982 in Cologne) is a German author, literary critic, scholar, and moderator. She studied Islamic Studies, English, and Political Science in Cologne and Bonn.
Her work moves between literature, translation, and cultural criticism, with a focus on postcolonial perspectives and the reception of BPoC authors in German-language literary discourse. As a translator and mediator of Persian-language poetry and prose, she builds bridges between linguistic and cultural worlds, making contemporary Iranian and diasporic voices accessible to German readers.
In 2022, she was appointed to the jury of the Leipzig Book Fair Prize. Her essays and reviews have appeared on 54books.de and other platforms, where she writes on representation, narrative universality, and the politics of literary interpretation.
Her first collection of literary essays, Dinosaurierkind (Ullstein, Berlin, 2025), continues her exploration of identity, belonging, and language as acts of resistance.
Maryam Aras is a recipient of an NRW Art Foundation Work Grant and the 2025 Kurt-Tucholsky Prize. She lives and works in Cologne.