Anja Utler was born in Schwandorf in 1973. She studied eastern Slavonic languages and literature, Anglistics and elocution in Regensburg, Norwich and St Petersburg. She made her poetry debut in 1999 with the volume aufsagen. In 2003, Utler received a doctorate for her thesis on female Russian Modernist poets. In the same year, she was presented with the Leonce-und-Lena-Preis, the most important award for young poets in the German-speaking world. She now lives in Vienna.