I was born in Diepholz, Germany, in 1946.

Twenty years I worked as a teacher of art, German language and literature and wrote lesson units and texts for a large textbook publisher.
My first novel was published in 2000, followed by three novels for children and young adults, as well as a long narrative for an anthology of world religions. My books have been translated into several languages and my novel "Over a thousand hills I walk with you" about the genocide in Rwanda received an important German children's book prize, the Buxtehuder Bulle. It was also published and critically acclaimed in the UK and the United States.

For almost 25 years I lived with my husband and fourteen children from all over the world – most of them African orphans – in Siegburg near Cologne.
In summer 2011 after most of our children had left the house we moved with our youngest son to the countryside and now live – with a dog, a cat and three horses – in a little village called Sassen where we found our dreamhouse, a beautiful cottage.

For me the ideal place to write.

 

www.hannajansen.de