Enlarge image
Judith Hermann (archive picture): Became known for volumes of short stories, has been nominated for the novel »Daheim«
Photo: Andreas Labes
In the fiction category, the Leipzig Book Fair jury put four women on the five-place nominee list, as the fair announced.
This has never happened before in the history of the award, which has been awarded since 2005.
Iris Hanika (“Echos Kammern”), Judith Hermann (“At home”), Friederike Mayröcker (“Since I step in the morning and moss green. Step to the window”) and Helga Schubert (“From getting up: A life in stories”) can hope for the award ") do.
The Swiss Christian Kracht completes the shortlist with his novel »Eurotrash«.
At the age of 50, Hermann is the youngest author among the nominees, Christian Kracht (born 1966) and Iris Hanika (1962) belong to the same generation.
Helga Schubert won the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize last year at the age of 70.
The Austrian Mayröcker is even 96 years old.
The Leipzig Book Fair Prize is awarded in the three categories of fiction, non-fiction / essay writing and translations.
It is endowed with a total of 60,000 euros - 15,000 euros go to the respective winners, each 1,000 euros is worth a nomination.
In the non-fiction category, the jury nominated Christoph Möllers ("Degrees of Freedom. Elements of a Liberal Political Mechanics"), Heike Behrend ("Human Incarnation of a Monkey. An Autobiography of Ethnographic Research"), Dan Diner ("Another War. The Jewish Palestine and the Second World War 1935 - 1942 "), Michael Hagner (" Foucault's pendulum and we. On the occasion of an installation by Gerhard Richter ") and Uta Ruge (" Bauern, Land. The history of my village in a world context ").
Behrend and Möllers were already among the nominees for the German Non-Fiction Prize, which was announced for the first time this year.
In the third category, translations from American English (John Dos Passos' "USA Trilogy", translated by Nikolaus Stingl and Dirk van Gunsteren), and Canadian French ("The Great Crash" by Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui, translated by Sonja Finck and Frank Heibert), the Hungarian ("Apropos Casanova" by Miklós Szentkuthy, translated by Timea Tankó), the English ("Pippins Tochters Taschentuch" by Rosmarie Waldrop, translated by Ann Cotten) and the Norwegian ("Die Vögel" by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel).
After the cancellation of the Leipzig Book Fair due to the corona pandemic, a ceremony is planned for the award ceremony on May 28 in the Leipzig Congress Hall.
According to the fair, it is still open whether viewers can be there or whether it will only be a live stream.
sak / dpa