Gunnar Cynybulk (50) grew up in Leipzig and Bavaria. He was publisher of Aufbau Verlag from 2014 to 2017, and, most recently, publisher of Ullstein Buchverlage (2017–2019). In a publishing career that spans 25 years since learning his trade at publishers such as Rowohlt Verlag and Farrar, Straus and Giroux in New York, he has championed authors such as Louise Erdrich, Bov Bjerg and Han Kang. His own novel Das halbe Haus (DuMont 2014) was awarded the Debut Prize of the Cologne book festival. In 2020 he founded the independent publishing house Kanon in Berlin.