Jo Lendle grew up in Göttingen. He studied literature, cultural studies and philosophy in Hildesheim and Montreal and was the first graduate of the German Literature Institute Leipzig. In 1996/1997 he edited the literary magazine Edit. From 1997, he was involved in setting up the DuMont literature programme as an editor for German-language literature. He also taught as a visiting professor and lecturer at the universities of Munich, Leipzig, Hildesheim and the Swiss Literature Institute in Biel. In 2006, Lendle became programme director for German-language literature and in 2010 publishing director of DuMont Buchverlag. Since the beginning of 2014, he has been publisher of Hanser Verlag and editor of the literary magazine Akzente.