Julia von Lucadou (Germany)

Julia von Lucadou was born in 1982 in Heidelberg and studied creative writing at the Swiss Literary Institute and media dramaturgy in Mainz. She has worked as an assistant director and television editor. Her debut novel “Die Hochhausspringerin” (“The High-Rise Diver”) was nominated for the Swiss Book Prize in 2018 and won the Swiss Literature Prize in 2019. In the novel, she paints a picture of a society focused on perfection and optimal performance, exploring themes of surveillance and care. An excerpt from the novel, along with an afterword by Jaak Tomberg, was published in the March 2024 issue of Akadeemia magazine. The excerpt was translated from German into Estonian by Anne Arold.

In her 2022 novel “Tick Tack”, Lucadou critically examines several contemporary phenomena from the perspective of the social media generation, addressing “filter bubbles” and the radicalisation of young people online. In 2023, a theatre production was created based on the novel.

Julia von Lucadou was a guest at the 2024 Prima Vista festival and was selected as the first resident for the new Goethe Institute literary residency programme this year. Her project stood out among the applications for its focus on the themes of misunderstanding and miscommunication.

The literary residency in Tartu is a collaborative project between the Goethe Institute in Tallinn, the Tartu German Cultural Institute, the Prima Vista literature festival, and the three UNESCO Cities of Literature, as part of the celebrations for the Estonian Book Year. The programme aims to encourage literary research and cultural exchange between the UNESCO Cities of Literature Heidelberg, Bremen, and Tartu.