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Book cover of »Afropäisch«
Photo: Jamie Stoker / Jamie Stoker / Penguin / Suhrkamp
The British essayist and photographer Johny Pitts will receive the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding 2021. He will win his book »Afropean.
A journey through black Europe ”, announced the city of Leipzig.
The prize is endowed with 20,000 euros and is one of the most important literary awards in Germany.
Pitts' book with reports and essays is a search for the post-colonial identity that drives him as the son of a white worker from Sheffield and a black soul singer from New York.
The jury justified the selection as he was traveling to a »black diaspora« in Europe, whose harsh reality usually goes unnoticed.
The prize is to be awarded at the opening of the Leipzig Book Fair on May 26, 2021.
Due to the corona, the fair was postponed from March to May next year.
The award has been presented since 1994.
The award board of trustees is made up of the Free State of Saxony, the City of Leipzig, the German Book Trade Association and the Leipzig Trade Fair.
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sak / dpa
