Denis Scheck

Denis Scheck, born in 1964 in Stuttgart, is a literary critic and television presenter. He studied German literature, political science, and contemporary history in Tübingen, Düsseldorf, and Dallas. At the age of just 13, Scheck founded a literary agency that even sold licenses to the GDR. He later worked as a literary translator, editor, and radio editor. Since 2003, he has hosted the ARD program Druckfrisch. With his humorous and sharp take on literature, he has earned a permanent place in the German literary landscape.

For his contributions to literary criticism, Scheck has received numerous awards, including the German Television Award (Deutscher Fernsehpreis), the Hildegard von Bingen Prize, the Bavarian Television Award (Bayerischer Fernsehpreis), the Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award, the Critics’ Prize of the German Anglistenverband, and the Perthes Prize of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association (Börsenverein).

In addition to his work as a literary critic, Scheck is also a passionate food critic and writes a column for the magazine Salon. He is the author of several nonfiction books, most recently Schecks Kanon (2019), Schecks kulinarischer Kompass (2022), and Schecks Bestsellerbibel (2024), all published by Piper. Together with Eva Gritzmann, he co-authored Sie & Er, der kleine Unterschied beim Essen und Trinken (2011), Solons Vermächtnis (2015), and the forthcoming Kafkas Kochbuch, to be published in autumn 2025 by Klett-Cotta.