Katja’s Bio

My story began on the communist side of the Iron Curtain, where I wrote my first stories on a mechanical typewriter my mother had procured for my eighth birthday on the East German black market.

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.

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 barista in London, background actor in Tokyo and 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.

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, on a trail, at the kitchen table crafting my zine — or practicing my favorite bass lines on my white and gold vintage Peavey from the 1980s.