Kai Grehn, born 1969 in Grevesmühlen, grew up in (East) Berlin. After periods working as a postman, an editorial member of staff, and an assistant and director at TanzTheater Skoronel, he studied theatre directing at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin.

Kai Grehn lives in Berlin, where he writes and directs. He is co-initiator and host of a series of readings in Friedrichshagen, Bobrowskis Mühle, with the Johannes Bobrowski society.

As well as two volumes of prose – SCHWARZ. Reiseskizzen and FUNKEN oder: So glücklich wie wir ist kein Mensch unter der Sonne – works he has published include plays, translations of authors such as William Blake, William S. Burroughs, Nick Cave, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Orson Welles and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and over 60 audio plays, for which he has received several awards, including the Deutscher Hörbuchpreis, the Prix Marulić special prize and the New York Festivals Gold Radio Award.

In 2016 he was the first-ever recipient of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Literature Prize.