Susanne Steines

Born 1969 in Giessen, Germany
Academic journey

After graduation in High School in Germany I was invited to the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes”, a foundation for the highly talented, which was back then recruiting students not only upon baccalaureate grades but also upon teachers’ and school directors’ recommendation and upon a weekend of selection talks and tests. I declined in order to stay completely free in my future ways. Questioning the highly competitive school system and the early stages of specialized education in Germany’s University System, I decided to study anything that interested me — philosophy, linguistics, neurolinguistics, psychology, art history — but keeping my main focus on German and French literature. In the area of art and painting I found school curricula most detrimental to the free development of one’s own ideas and signature style — one’s own handwriting. I took private classes in portraiture and oil painting. While working for various newspapers and publishing poetry in magazines, radio, and public readings, I took a chance and travelled to Mexico with the goal to study Latin American literature. I was immediately captured by the creative power of this country and ended up spending several months a year in Mexico.

www.susannesteines.com