Michael Braun, born in Hauenstein (Palatinate) in 1964, was a German literary critic. He died in Heidelberg in December 2022 at the age of 64.
Braun studied German literature and philosophy. He worked in radio, was a presenter at the Erlangen Poetenfest from 1994, and edited numerous anthologies of contemporary poetry. With his extensive critical work in almost all public media in the German-speaking world (such as the Neue Zürcher Zeitung or the Tagesspiegel), Michael Braun was considered one of the best connoisseurs of German-language poetry.
His literary criticism, which he pursued continuously for more than forty years, was characterized both by detailed contributions on individual authors and by critical monitoring of literary institutions, festivals, and fundamental global changes in the literary scene. In numerous interviews he opened up innovative approaches to contemporary poetry as well as to the interactions with other arts, such as painting.
In 2018 he received the Alfred-Kerr-prize for literary critic.