Herta Müller was born in 1955 in Bottrop (North Rhine-Westphalia). From 1975 to 1981 she studied at the Folkwangschule in Essen. In 1993 she was honoured with the Swiss Boswil Scholarship. Since 1990 she has taught costume design as a guest professor at the University of Arts in Berlin. Müller lives and works in Berlin and Italy.