Kaléko, Mascha (1907–1975)

Mascha Kaléko was a transnational Jewish German-language poet and one of the few female representatives of the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit). Her early works include Das lyrische Stenogrammheft (‘The Lyrical Notebook in Shorthand. Poems of the Everyday’; 1933) and Kleines Lesebuch für Große (Little Reading Book for Big People; 1934), both of which were blacklisted by the Nazis in 1937. After fleeing with her family to New York in 1938, Kaléko continued to publish her poetry in German. Although she received the Fontane Prize in 1960, Kaléko refused to accept the award because it was to be handed over by a former Nazi official.