Hansen is married to documentary filmmaker
Sven Jaax [
frr] and has a daughter. From 2005 to 2016, she lived with her family in
Steinkirchen, Lower Saxony[5] and now lives in Husum.[6]
Work
After an internship at the magazine Merian she worked until 2008 as a journalist for several radio stations (
NDR,
WDR,
SWR,
hr,
DLF) and various magazines,[7] until 2012 then as a permanent cultural editor at NDR Info.[3] Since then, she has worked as a freelance author.
In her first novel, Altes Land (2015), Hansen worked critically on the subject of
homeland: many city dwellers discovered the
countryside as a place of longing for themselves and moved to a village. In Hansen's opinion, however, they were subject to a mistake because they only played country life and made "peasant theater".[3] Hansen connects this topic with the fate of the female protagonist as a homeless postwar refugee from
East Prussia in the
Altes Land. The book was a bestseller and received praise from most critics.[8]
Her second novel Mittagsstunde (2018) explores German village life. The cultural and interpersonal change in the fictional North Frisian village "Brinkebüll" is portrayed from the 1960s to the present day.[9] The author tells the story without idealizing country life and draws in laconic language often bizarre characters with a lot of empathy.[10][11]
2006: Media Prize of the foundation "Children's Rights in the One World" in the radio category for her NDR reportage Der Hamburger Kompass – Hilfe für Kinder alkoholkranker Eltern.[13]
Århammar, Nils; Tadsen, Christina; Wilts, Ommo (1993). Skriiw fresk; Schriw frasch; Skriiv friisk : teksten tu a fresk literatüürweedstridj 1989/90 (in Western Frisian). Bräist/Bredstedt, NF: Nordfriisk Instituut.
ISBN3-88007-205-1.
OCLC28586962.
Hansen-Jaax, Dörte (1995). Transfer bei Diglossie : synchrone Sprachkontaktphänomene im Niederdeutschen (in German). Hamburg: Kovač.
ISBN3-86064-292-8.
OCLC36252582.
Fürchte dich nicht vor dem Familienberater. Reportage. In: Chrismon, December 2009.[21]
Steensen, Thomas (2020). Nordfriesland – Menschen von A bis Z (in German). Husum, Nordsee: Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft mbH u. Co. KG.
ISBN978-3-96717-027-6.
OCLC1162620898.