About

The multi-award-winning author Nina George, born in 1973, has been writing novels, essays, reports, short stories and columns since 1992. She also serves as political representative for the European Writers‘ Council (EWC). Her novel ‘The Little Paris Bookshop’ has been published in 37 languages and has topped international charts, including the New York Times bestseller list in the USA. Together with her husband, the writer Jens J. Kramer, Nina George writes Provençal novels under the double pseudonym Jean Bagnol, and under their real names, they have published various children’s book series with Thienemann/Planet, such as ‘Magische Bibliothek der Buks’ (The Magical Library of Buks), which was awarded ‘Best Children’s Book of the Year’. Die Passantin will be published by Kein & Aber on 11 August 2025.

Literary policy

Nina George served as president of the European Writers‘ Council (EWC), the umbrella organisation of currently 53 authors‘ associations from 35 countries, for four years: www.europeanwriterscouncil.eu. Since June 2023, Nina George has been Honorary President of the EWC and its representative for political affairs. George represents the approximately 250,000 authors and translators of the EWC in committees and conferences of the IFRRO, WIPO, EUIPO, PLR International and before the European Commission, the European Council and the EU Parliament. Under her leadership, the #freeallwords project, a translation project for Belarusian and Ukrainian authors, was launched in 2022. In 2022, George was appointed political representative of the Authors‘ Rights Network to the German Federal Government’s Round Table on E-Lending at the BKM, and in 2023 to the advisory board of the German Federal Government’s Datenraum Kultur project. In 2024, she received a fellowship from the Technical University of Darmstadt for the project Generative AI and Authorship in Knowledge Work and Literature. George works as an external expert in the fields of digital economy, copyright, artificial intelligence and library issues for the Copyright Initiative. In June 2023, Nina George was elected to the VG Wort Administrative Board for her third term and has been representing the interests and concerns of Professional Group 1 as its spokesperson since July. Seit 2022 ist Nina George Mitglied der ALAI, the international association L’Association Littéraire et Artistique International founded in 1878 by Victor Hugo. In 2016, on her initiative, nine associations (now 15) joined forces to form the Authors‘ Rights Network. Since 2018, Nina George has been an advisor to Förderverein Buch e.V. and is currently the association’s treasurer. In the first crisis year of 2020, Förderverein Buch e.V. was able to support 260 bookshops with a total of 415 readings and thus 379 authors with fee subsidies (400/500 euros) and a total of a quarter of a million euros. (foerderverein-buch.de) Nina George realised the #frauenzählen project in collaboration with the Authors‘ Rights Network, the University of Rostock and BücherFrauen e.V., among others. Nina George is a member of the international Writers‘ Circle of PEN International and a member of Pen deutschsprachiger Autor:innen im Ausland (Exil-PEN). From 2021 to 2023, she was the moderator of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation’s ‘Writers in Prison’ series. From 2017 to 2019, Nina George was responsible for copyright, digital media, VS Congress publications and association cooperation for the federal executive committee of the Association of German Writers (VS). Until February 2019, George represented the VS on the Copyright Committee of the German Cultural Council. In 2011, Nina George founded the ‘YES to Copyright’ initiative, In 2014, she launched the Fair Book Market information platform following a protest against Amazon’s discount war on authors.

Awards

In 2017, Nina George was named ‘Book Woman of the Year’, in 2018 she received the ‘Goldene Auguste’ award, and in 2020 she received the ‘Ehrenglauser’ award for her commitment to strengthening the moral and economic rights of authors. In 2012 and 2013, she received awards for her novels and short stories. In March 2022, Nina George was honoured as Author of the Year. In May 2022, she was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit. In September 2023, Nina George was awarded the German-French Friendship Prize by the Ministry for European Affairs and the State Chancellery of Saarland.