Katja’s Bio

My earliest writings include a tale about a vampire handwritten in blood-red pen, a puppet play about a visit to the dentist performed at my elementary school recital, and short stories typed on the mechanical typewriter my mother procured on the East German black market for my 8th birthday.

After a childhood behind the Iron Curtain, I leapt at the chance to explore the world once the Berlin Wall fell. I tried my hand as a barista in London, a background actor in Tokyo and a staff reporter in Pretoria.

I earned a dual master’s in cultural anthropology and British and American literature from Humboldt University Berlin, where I also served on the student council and taught classes at the undergraduate level. I also hold an associate’s degree in translation and

After over a decade in New York City, where I ran a successful creative communications business, I briefly returned to Berlin to launch the German chapter of a global sustainability organization. I now live in Los Angeles and have dedicated my career to my first love: telling stories.

Though I’m an introvert at heart, I love creating spaces where people and ideas can connect. In Williamsburg, I ran an underground music venue and supper club with friends. In Bushwick, I co-founded the Bushwick Entrepreneurs Club; in Berlin I hosted a Kitchen Table Provocations Salon. Now, in Los Angeles, I’ve launched an Open Writing Studio at Heavy Manners Library.

If I’m not writing, you’ll likely find me at a live music show, in a gallery or on a trail — or practicing my favorite bass lines and drum patterns, feeding the rhythm that also drives my writing.