Dimitrij Kapitelman was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 1986 to a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother. In 1991, He emigrated to Germany with his family at the age of eight after the German government passed the Kontingentflüchtlingsgesetz (Contingency Refugee Act), offering asylum for all Jewish inhabitants from the Former Soviet Union. Kapitelman earned a degree in sociology and political science from the University of Leipzig and graduated from the Deutsche Journalistenschule (The German School of Journalism in Munich). His first book Das Lächeln meines unsichtbaren Vaters (The Smile of My Invisible Father) won the Klaus-Michael Kühne Prize in 2016. Eine Formalie in Kiew is his second novel, and winner of the Buchpreis Familienroman 2021 der Stiftung Ravensburger Verlag. According to the judges, Eine Formalie in Kiew “brings a new narrative style to contemporary German-language literature.” The judges further praised “the linguistic sovereignty, sophisticated linguistic wit and apt situational comedy.” As an independent journalist, Kapitelman writes for various newspapers. His articles and essays center on right-wing extremism, migration policy, and related fields of conflict. He also makes music under the stage name Dheema and released his album Querulantenkram in 2016.