Author | Editor | Sensitivity ReaderLen Klapdor |
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About
Len Klapdor is a freelance writer, editor, and sensitivity reader from the sprawling, multicentric Ruhr region. Enthralled with the art of storytelling from a young age, she has written dozens of stories and worked as a story developer for games and theater projects. She studied literature and performance studies at the Ruhr University of Bochum and co-founded the performance collective >Anna Kpok, who have become a well-established stable of independent German theater. In 2021, she published her debut novel, The Hand That Feeds, and several of her short stories have appeared in various magazines. Her writing is characterized by a search for the difficult questions and often gravitates toward horror. As an editor, she works regularly for the WDR and in the academic field, among others.
Len Klapdor is autistic, queer, and lives happily above the rooftops of the city with her cyborg family. She is currently represented by Lauren Bieker at FinePrint Literary Management. When not plotting her next story, she likes to watch spooky horror movies, or just the wind in the trees.
Len Klapdor ist eine freie Autorin, Lektorin und Sensitivity Reader aus dem weitläufigen, multizentrischen Ruhrgebiet. Von klein auf von der Kunst des Geschichtenerzählens begeistert, hat sie Dutzende von Geschichten geschrieben und als Story-Entwicklerin für Spiele und Theaterprojekte gearbeitet. Sie hat Literatur- und Theaterwissenschaft an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum studiert und das Performancekollektiv >Anna Kpok mitgegründet. Im Jahr 2021 veröffentlichte sie ihren Debütroman, The Hand That Feeds, und einige ihrer Kurzgeschichten sind in verschiedenen Magazinen erschienen. Ihr Schreiben ist geprägt von der Suche nach den schwierigen Fragen und gravitiert häufig in Richtung Horror. Als Lektorin arbeitet sie u.a. regelmäßig für den WDR und im akademischen Bereich.
Len Klapdor ist autistisch, queer und lebt glücklich mit ihrer Cyborg-Familie über den Dächern der Stadt. Momentan wird sie durch Lauren Bieker von FinePrint Literary Management vertreten. Wenn sie nicht gerade ihr nächstes Buch plant, schaut sie gern Horrorfilme, oder beobachtet den Wind in den Bäumen.
Novels
On Submission: The Samsara Solution
Co-written with >Danai Christopoulou and >A.J. van Belle
In a near future where past lives are a scientifically proven fact, a disabled woman haunted by her former self, an unlikely murderer on a quest for justice, and a jaded investigator with a knack for dying must make peace with former incarnations before more innocent lives are lost, or risk Final Death—the kind you don’t come back from in any form.
A near-future scifi mystery that will knock your socks off...and unfortunately, that's all I can tell you for now...
Artwork by Danai Christopoulou
Work-in-progress: Lissas Brücke / Lissa's Bridge
Der Tod ist Frieden. Ein schrecklicher, wunderbarer Frieden.
Die unbekannte Tote, die nahe eines verwilderten Gebietes gefunden wird, gibt Sonderermittlerin Murphy und Tatortermittler Occam viele Rätsel auf. Ein Hinweis führt sie in das Herz des Spinnenwaldes, wo sie eine düstere und gefährliche Welt vorfinden, die die beiden ungleichen Ermittelnden nicht so einfach wieder gehen lassen wird.
Death is peace. A terrible, wonderful peace.
The unknown dead body found near an overgrown area poses many puzzles for special investigator Murphy and crime scene investigator Occam. A clue leads them into the heart of the spider forest, where they find a dark and dangerous world that will not let the two unequal investigators leave so easily.
#Hopepunk #LGBTQ
Selfpublished: The Hand That Feeds
Something is rotten in the state of Ithacan. Aurora Vespucci is determined to bring it to light. But the obstacles the royal family of Ithacan has placed in her path are huge, and when a friend lets her down, Aurora's carefully forged plans go awry. Suddenly she must trust a complete stranger with secrets that could not only unhinge the royal family, but Ithacan as a whole…
Set in a techno-magical, climatepunk future, The Hand That Feeds is the first part of the Stormbringer Saga.
#climatepunk #darkfantasy #thriller #polyromance #LGBTQIA+
Now available on Amazon!
>Ebook
>Paperback
> Sneak Peak
Cover Art by Max Neumann
Published as Anna Klapdor
Short Stories
Published: Ihre Worte / Words Of Grace
When receiving a mysterious message from their best friend Grace, Lore rushes to get to her. But the lands between their underground living pods are roamed by a ravenous entity, and as events unfold, Lore finds themself locked in with their greatest nightmare.
Words of Grace/Ihre Worte is a drama set in a bleak future and spiked with spooky horror elements. It is also a love letter to playwright Sarah Kane, who inspired me to write my first poem when I was a teenager. It is part of the >Neuropunk Anthology published by Weltenruder Verlag.
Als sie eine mysteriöse Nachricht von ihrer besten Freundin Grace erhält, eilt Lore zu ihr. Doch das Land zwischen ihren unterirdischen Wohnkapseln wird von einem gefräßigen Wesen heimgesucht, und als sich die Ereignisse überschlagen, sieht sich Lore mit ihrem größten Albtraum konfrontiert.
Words of Grace/Ihre Worte ist ein Drama, das in einer düsteren Zukunft spielt und mit gruseligen Horror-Elementen gespickt ist. Es ist auch ein Liebesbrief an die Dramatikerin Sarah Kane, die mich als Teenager zu meinem ersten Gedicht inspiriert hat. Ihre Worte ist Teil der >Neuropunk-Anthologie sein, die beim Verlag Weltenruder erschienen ist.
Forthcoming: Atha's Daughters
Princess meets mysterious woman. Princess gets in trouble. Read all about it in >Solarpunk Magazine!
Coming in Fall 2024.
Published: Petrichor
Petrichor is climate fiction horror that won't give you hope but might nourish the raging fires in your heart. It's been adapted into an audiodrama by >Strong Branch Productions and became Episode 15 of Tales from the Radiator Season 1. You can check out Tales from the Radiator on >Spotify.
Published: 13 Ships for the Rising World
Co-written with Danai Christopoulou and A.J. Van Belle
Over the course of a century, three generations of women strive to preserve food crops, cultivate a de-glaciated Antarctica, and build a kinder, more cooperative future.
First published by >Flourish Fiction and >free to read!
Published: Stardust
Co-written with Danai Christopoulou
A soldier codenamed Perseus hunts rebel scientist and alleged mass murderer Medusa for the destruction she wrought to his home planet, but when both their ships crash on a remote asteroid, Perseus faces more than one jarring revelation about the interplanetary war they’ve both been fighting.
The story was first published in the >Heads and Tales Anthology, edited by Chapel Orahamm, and has now found a new home in
>Etherea Magazine Issue 14. It's a feminist reimagining of the fight between Medusa and Perseus, focusing on the war that often is more of a backdrop to reiterations of the myth and translating the story’s magical elements into a sci-fi setting.
Cover Image (left) Mandala Design by >Cephaloblot
Cover image (right) designed by Etherea Magazine
Published: Backlash
Even serial-killers have bad days sometimes...and you will read all about it when the #WritingCommunity staples over at >Horror Tree publish my short in their outlet >Trembling With Fear.
Games & Theater
Horror Vacui
We want to write. Together. About what concerns us.
Horror Vacui is a feminist, collective writing project. For almost 3 years, 7 women* have been meeting regularly, writing and editing their texts together, setting tasks, playing writing games. There are no goals or targets, only needs and rules, and the honest request:
Tell me more!
Authors: Emese Bodolay, Kathrin Ebmeier, Laura Eggert, Ae Ran Kim, Len Klapdor, Almut Pape, Mia Sellmann.
For October 2022, we have invited various artists to engage with our text for a week, to question it, to tear it apart, to make something new out of it, to take it as a springboard into their own imagination. The preliminary results will be presented in a tour at Haus Rüschhaus on October 15th 2022.
Horror Vacui is an Anna Kpok production, co-produced with the Center for Literature Burg Hülshoff and supported by Junges Schauspielhaus Bochum. Supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
>Horror Vacui (German)
Shell Game - Lost in Paranoialand
By Anna Kpok
Let Paranoia Tours take you to the most distant planets in the galaxy and experience a fantastic journey full of adventure! Yes, it's real!
In Anna Kpok's new live game, the adventure vacation becomes a test of survival: After a defect on board the Paranoia Cruiser, all travelers have been dropped off on the nearest rescue planet. United in the unknown, it is now a matter of following the emergency protocol, maintaining the basic rules of a society and surviving the days until rescue. But unexplained incidents raise doubts, is everything really as it seems at first glance?
Shell Game - Lost in Paranoialand is based on the short story of the same name by Philip K. Dick and is a mixture of participatory theater evening and live game: up to 30 spectators have to face puzzles and tasks on an alien planet as a travel group, make directional decisions together and survive as a group.
An Anna Kpok production together with Ringlokschuppen Ruhr and Schaubude Berlin. Supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR and the NRW KULTURsekretariat Wuppertal.
>Shell Game (German)
>Video report in English about Shell Game and this year's >FIDENA Figure Theatre of Nations Festival, where the performance was shown.
The Freedom Game
Freedom isn’t free: Can you outsmart an oppressive regime? Play a Deutsche Welle game to find out!
Imagine Berlin in an alternate reality: Secret police is omnipresent and all information is censored. Now your friend Mia has disappeared after researching a murder case. Can you help find out what happened to Mia?
A Deutsche Welle game in cooperation with the DE:HIVE Game Hub of the HTW Berlin funded as part of the cross:play project.
>The Freedom Game
Hire me!
You can hire me as an author, editor, or sensitivity reader (ableism, misogyny & queerphobia). Drop me a line with nature and extend of your project, and I'll get back to you within 48 hours.
klapdor.lektorat ätt gmail dott com
Blog
>Neurowitch Blog
The place where I write about #WritersLife, Neurodivergence, and a myriad other things, in German and in English.
Impressum
Anna-Lena Klapdor
c/o autorenglück.de
Franz-Mehring-Str. 15
01237 Dresden
When not stated otherwise, all artwork made by me. All photos on Unsplash.
Copyright 2023 by Anna-Lena Klapdor