When she sits down and starts to tell a story, the settings and her characters come alive in your mind instantly and magically.
Upcoming Events
18 October 2023 • 10:20 “Future Fairy Tales”
School reading in English in the Christophorus Schule
Königswinter
21 November 2023 • 12:15 Poetics Lecture
Poetics lecture for education students.
Halle (Saale)
21 November 2023 • 16:00 Creative Writing Workshop
Creative writing and art workshop for elementary school students in the group “Schreibspielwiese“ (Arbeitsgemeinschaft schreibender Grundschüler); Workshop in Haus 31, Franckesche Stiftungen, Franckeplatz 1
Halle (Saale)
22 November 2023 • 10:00 Reading from “Future Fairy Tales”
School reading in German
Halle (Saale)
20 December 2023 • 09:00 Readings from Everlasting and Future Fairy Tales
two German-language readings and one English-language reading in the Montessori-Oberschule Potsdam.
Potsdam
31 December 2023 • 07:00 Radio Play: Stella Menzel and the Golden Thread
Radio play in German based on the novel “Stella Menzel and the Golden Thread” by HJR with Theresa Zertani, Leslie Malton and HJR and others, Directed by Leonhard Koppelmann
NDR Kultur
21 March 2024 • 09:45 Everlasting/Infinitissimo Bilingual Reading
closed school reading from Everlasting/Infinitissimo at Goethe Gymnasium Steglitz
Berlin
23 April 2024 • 10:00 Readings from Future Fairy Tales
English-language school readings in der Zentralbibliothek Wall-Saal
Bremen
23 April 2024 • 19:00 Reading from Future Fairy Tales
public English-language reading in the Bibliothek Vegesack
Bremen
24 April 2024 • 10:00 Readings with Future Fairy Tales
English-language school readings in the Bücherei Vahr, Berliner Freiheit
Bremen
Grand Prize for Radio Drama!
I’m thrilled to be this year’s recipient of the German Children’s Radio Drama Award for “Stella Menzel and the Golden Thread” (rbb/NDR) with many thanks to the award’s sponsors, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW and the ARD Radio network.
The photo shows us in the rbb-studio in July 2019 during a break. We see Theresa Zertani (left), who played Stella, Leslie Malton (right) Stella’s mother, Isabel Zwickel-Menzel, and yours truly (middle) who was cast as Stella’s Oma from America, Josephine. (Me? A grandmother? Yikes!) The photo is a little out of focus. And do you know why? Director Leonhard Koppelmann’s hands were shaky because he just couldn’t wait to get a bite of the cake, a surprise from the folks over at Ohrenbär (rbbKultur). Many thanks to the baker, Birgit Patzelt, and producer, Sonja Kessen. They were all a part of this wonderful production and I am deeply grateful to them!
I am thrilled to report that my novel “The Mystery of Ainsley Castle” has been awarded two more book awards this fall: the LEKTORIX, awarded by the Austrian weekly magazine “Die Furche,” the Institut für Jugendkultur and the STUBE-Vienna. Equally wonderful: “The Mystery of Ainsley Castle” was named Children’s Book-of-the-Month October by the German Academy for Children’s and Young Adult Literature in Volkach, Bavaria.
The 7 Best Books
My novel DAS RÄTSEL VON AINSLEY CASTLE (The Mystery of Ainsley Castle, working title) was just named by Deutschlandfunk and Focus Magazin one of the “7 Best Books for Young Readers” for the month July 2020!
