Ursel Bäumer (Germany)

Born in Münster, Ursel Bäumer (b. 1950) lives as a freelance author in Bremen following her studies in German Philology and Cultural Studies. She is a member of the Lower Saxony Writers’ Association.

Bäumer has written novels, short stories, and short prose. Her debut novel, Zeit der Habichte (Time of the Hawks), was published in 2011 by the Zurich publishing house Dörlemann. The focus of her work is on female artists and musicians as well as the places associated with their work.

Her latest novel, Louise (Hamburg, Nagel & Kimche), published in 2023, explores the early years of the world-famous French-American artist Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) in France. Currently, Ursel Bäumer is writing a novel about Ginette Neveu, a gifted violinist who died at a young age.

Ursel Bäumer has travelled extensively and worked with young people. For about a decade, she led an association that organised literary workshops and evenings for high school students in Bremen.

Bäumer has received several awards for her literary work, most recently a project scholarship from the City of Bremen in 2021. In 2022, she was a writer-in-residence at the Representation of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen in Berlin. From April 30 to June 5, Bäumer will be in Tartu as an ambassador of the UNESCO City of Literature Bremen, as part of a residency program organised by the Goethe Institute, the Tartu German Cultural Institute, and the literary festival Prima Vista.

In Estonia, Bäumer is interested not only in the country’s nature but also in the connection between literature, landscapes, and cities. She finds it equally fascinating to explore how contemporary authors relate to the work of famous female writers in Estonian literary history.