Claudia Kiefer (Germany)

Claudia Kiefer (born 1979) grew up in Stendal, East Germany, and has been living in Heidelberg for over 20 years. She primarily writes poetry and short stories. She is also a publisher, curator, and lecturer in German, and a member of the jury for the writing competition “Heimat(en)” organised by the UNESCO City of Literature Heidelberg and Heidelberg University.

In 2023, Claudia Kiefer’s poetry collection “Gezeiten” (“High Tide”) was published by Prosodia. Her works have appeared in anthologies from publishers such as Mikrotext, Wunderhorn, and Schule für Dichtung.

Currently, Claudia is working on texts for the writing competition “Heimat(en)” and is planning a book project that will also incorporate her photographs. She is interested in how places become a home through language, encounters, memories, and disruptions. She does not define home(s) as a fixed geographical point, but rather as a network of relationships that includes people, places, culture, and nature.

She is particularly intrigued by the question of how a sense of belonging is formed in a city that is in constant movement and change, and how literature can make these often invisible connections visible and even shape them.

Claudia Kiefer is coming to Tartu as an ambassador from UNESCO City of Literature Heidelberg, supported by a travel grant of the residency program organised by the Goethe Institute, the Tartu German Culture Institute, and the literary festival Prima Vista.