Writing
I work on both, fiction and nonfiction projects. My first novel Wir alles, wir nichts was published in 2018. Denkräume. Von Orten und Ideen, an anthology on places and spaces of thinking, came out in 2020 (Rowohlt). In the Spring of 2023, Natur und Nation. Landschaft als Ausdruck nationaler Identität, my research on the literary Hudson River and Rhine, came out and is now available here. Walking Herstory New York City, an illustrated guide to women's history will be published soon.
I was born and raised in Germany, and while I have written most of my fiction in German, I am increasingly working on projects in English as well. Currently, I work on a collection of short stories.
As a translator, I specialize in texts from English into German. I live in New York.
If you have any questions about my work as a writer and translator, you can contact me here.
Books | Out Soon:
2023 | Travel, Women's History
Walking Herstory New York City
From Greenwich Village to Harlem, from Central Park to Prospect Park, Walking Herstory: New York City is a walking guide to the rich tapestry of women's history in New York City. Organized by neighborhood, this beautifully illustrated travel guide takes you on an inspiring journey through an overlooked aspect of NYC's history. Along the way, you will encounter the women, including Billie Holiday, Zora Neale Hurston, Harriet Tubman, Gloria Steinem, and Maya Lin – and landmarks that make up the incredible "herstory" of New York City.
Books | Available:
Natur und Nation. Landschaft als Ausdruck nationaler Identität im 19. Jahrhundert – der Rhein und der Hudson River
Comparative Literature, German Studies
April 2023
Königshausen & Neumann, Germany
published in German
About the Book
Based on my doctoral thesis and completed under the auspices of a scholarship from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation Natur und Nation. Landschaft als Ausdruck nationaler Identität explores representations of nature in light of national narratives in literary texts. I examine landscape as a medium for the formation of national identities in the process of 19th-century nation-building in Germany and the United States, engaging with authors like Friedrich Hölderlin, Heinrich Heine, Washington Irving, and John Burroughs. My analysis juxtaposes two river landscapes, the Rhein and the Hudson, which are historically linked through German immigration to the Hudson Valley and the founding of the village of Rhinebeck. Building on Fredric Jameson’s three concentric frameworks, I argue that the interpretation of a text has to be done in four phases: a political moment, a social one, plot and genre, and finally adopting a wider lens on collective histories and possible futures.
Denkräume. Von Orten und Ideen
anthology; ed. w. S. Jung
July 2020
Rowohlt Verlag, Germany
published in German
About the Book
"Das Denken ist so unberechenbar wie die Gegenwart, in der es stattfindet."
How much does thinking depend on where we think? In principle, it can take place anywhere and at any time. Music can stimulate thinking, a walk in nature or in the city, being alone or with others. The places and possibilities for thinking and writing are many. Spaces open up possibilities and limit them at the same time, they separate and connect; however, thinking – even that which is spatially limited – transcends boundaries.
For this book, we invited thirty journalists, writers, and scholars to reflect on the places where they think and write. What does the place do to the thoughts? The results are anecdotes, autobiographical observations, conversations, essays, literary rambles, and thought pictures. They tell us stories – some lighter, like thinking in the shower or on the dance floor, some more serious, like thinking in exile or in prison.
With contributions by Basma Abdelaziz, Meryl Altman, Dirk Baecker, Jens Balzer, Bernd Bösel, Friedrich von Borries, Mercedes Bunz, Ann Cotten, Dietmar Dath, Diedrich Diederichsen, Sascha Ehlert, Carolin Emcke, Hanna Engelmeier, Isabelle Graw, Rahab Haidar, Sven Hanuschek, Gerhard Henschel, Iman Humaidan, Ann Lauterbach, Birthe Mühlhoff, Matthias Nawrat, Joseph O'Neill, Kathrin Passig, Stephan Porombka, Kathrin Röggla, Juan G. Sánchez Martínez, Nora Sternfeld, Jörg Sundermeier, Meşale Tolu, David Wagner und Bernhard Waldenfels.
Wir alles, wir nichts
novel
January 2018
Qantor Verlag, Austria
published in German
About the Book
A collage of portraits in Europe and the US in the year 2016, an election year in the States. Some of the characters meet, some don't, but are still indirectly connected.
Essays & Articles
Arendt and Translation: Thought, Language, Poetry
"Quote of the Week" for the Hannah Arendt Center, Bard College; April 2023
Melora Kuhn: Tales from the Dark
Text for New York artist Melora Kuhn's new exhibition at Galerie EIGEN + ART in Leipzig, June 2021 (published in English and in German)
Nature as Art
Article about Christoph Heilmann and his collection on display at Lenbachhaus München. In: FORUM. Magazine for scholarship holders of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, p. 52-55 (published in German)
Hannah Arendt and World War I: On Statelessness and the Rise of Totalitarian Regimes
For "Amor Mundi" at Hannah Arendt Center, Bard College, November 2020
Arendt, Hölderlin, and their perception of Schicksal
In: Hannah Arendt Journal of Bard College, Volume VIII, 2020, p. 122-135
Newsletter
Please sign up if you'd like to receive news about my publications, events, art, or other texts and artwork that I have come across and would like to share with you. You will receive an email about every two months, and of course, you can unsubscribe at any time. Thank you for your interest! I look forward to sending you my little notes.
cover image: (C) AnneRaft Photography