Clara Henssen is a German-American writer based in Oxford. She is the author of down (Launenweber, 2018). Her second novel, supported by the Stiftung Zurückgeben Scholarship, is forthcoming in Spring 2027 from Droschl Verlag.
Drawn to the oral tradition of literature, Clara first presented short prose to live audiences and went on to read at German literary stages including Fleet Poet, Land in Sicht, Lettrétage, and Literaturhaus Hamburg. Her poetry and short stories have since appeared in The Catweazle, Nox, and orte, and have been staged at the German Opera Berlin.
Alongside her writing, she studied literature at Humboldt University of Berlin, Cambridge, and Oxford, and has worked as an editor in German publishing houses. She currently teaches Creative Writing at Stanford University’s Montag Center for Overseas Studies and will be joining the University of Oxford’s Centre for Life Writing as a Yosef Wosk Visiting Researcher in 2026/2027.