Short:
Tanja Dückers, *1968 in Berlin, has published 18 books, including the prose works „Himmelskörper“, „Spielzone“, „Hausers Zimmer“, „Café Brazil“, essay volumes („Morgen nach Utopia“, „Über das Erinnern“), poetry volumes, children’s books, plays. Invention of a secret writing as well as foundation of her own chocolate brand „Preussisch süß – Berliner Stadtteilschokolade“ with the chocolatier Christoph Wohlfarth. Tanja Dückers talks about socio-political topics and is represented on many stages at home and abroad. She was writer-in-residence at Dartmouth College, Allegheny College, Oberlin College and Miami University, among other places. She teaches at Madison University in 2020. She is a member of PEN, Amnesty International, Weiter Schreiben. A portal for literature and music from crisis areas and the Christa Wolf Society. She lives with her family in Berlin.
More in detail:
Tanja Dückers was born on 25 September 1968 in Berlin (West). She is the daughter of the wellknown art historian (and expert on the work of George Grosz) Alexander Dückers. She lives with her family in Berlin (East).
After an extended stay in the United States, she read German studies, Dutch studies, American studies and art history at Berlin’s Free University and at Amsterdam University, graduating with an interdisciplinary dissertation on “The aesthetic of the sublime in modern painting, as seen in the work of Barnett Newman”.
During her studies, she worked for three years as a copywriter for news and weather broadcasts on Deutsche Welle TV in Berlin and as an editorial assistant for various publishers. Her first two books, twin volumes of poetry, were published while she was still studying, her first novel shortly after she graduated. Since her studies, Tanja Dückers has made her living as a freelance writer and journalist. She also teaches on German studies programmes outside Germany.
Scholarships and teaching jobs have taken her, among other places, to Los Angeles, Meadville/Pennsylvania, Hanover / New Hampshire, Oxford and Oberlin / Ohio, Amsterdam, Flanders and Brussels, Bristol /UK, Barcelona, Paris, Brno, Prague, Krakow, Bucharest, Sibiu, Cata (both Romania), Sylt and Ahrenshoop, Gotland/Sweden, Cyprus and Salzburg. Though travelling a lot, Tanja Dückers has never been doing any trip in her life without having a home in Berlin.
In 2017 Tanja developed and established with the Berlin-based chocolatier Christoph Wohlfarth her own chocolate-line „Preussisch süß“ (=Prussian sweet) with 19 different tastes according to the characteristics of different districts of her hometown. www.preussisch-suess.de
Travel – Scholarships – Teaching
As a journalist, Tanja Dückers writes for various newspapers and magazines, including Die Zeit, Spiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Welt, National Geographic, Brigitte, taz, Emma, Frankfurter Rundschau, Berliner Zeitung, Berliner Morgenpost, Jungle World …
2007-2008: columnist for Frankfurter Rundschau
2006-2009: columnist for the magazine BÜCHER – including a series on strange neologisms taken from everyday life.
2012-2016 Member of the editorial statt of a radio show on new fictional books.
Since 2008, Tanja Dückers has been writing essays for the online version of Die Zeit on aspects of German politics and society.
Another focus of her work is art criticism.
Other activities
Drawings and comics (The Blubs); developed the secret script “Autumnic”;
various joint projects with fine artists, composers, choreographers and actors;
curated the group exhibition “Wasser / Hinterland” featuring artists Nadia Gyr (Zurich/Amsterdam), Claudia Reinhardt (Berlin/Bergen), Marcel Gorenflos (Berlin) and Roger Frank (Freiburg/Berlin) at Kunst:Raum Syltquelle, Rantum/Sylt from Sept. 8 – Oct. 31, 2006
For eight years organisation of a yearly big benefit reading with music in aid of homeless people in Berlin. In the year 2015 the money was raised for a berlinbased refugee-organisation.
Member of Amnesty International, the international PEN, the Christa-Wolf-Foundation, of ver.di, of Slow Food and of the Berlin-based refugee-support-group „we’re doing it“, mainly of „Write On“, a project for authors, who are seeking asylum.