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Prize winner Gauß: "Avoiding all know-it-all pathos"
Photo: Kurt Kaindl
The Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding 2022 is awarded to the Austrian writer Karl-Markus Gauß.
In particular, the jury pays tribute to his book "Die incessant hike: Reportages", which was published in October 2020 by Paul Zsolnay Verlag Vienna.
It gathers "sensitive stories from special places and people in Europe," praised the city of Leipzig in a press release.
The prize will be awarded at the opening of the Leipzig Book Fair - depending on the current situation, the event is scheduled for the evening of March 16, 2022 in the Gewandhaus in Leipzig.
Last week, the managing director of the Leipziger Messe, Martin Buhl-Wagner, emphasized his conviction that “the Leipzig Book Fair can take place in our exhibition halls from March 17th to 20th”.
The laudator would be the Austrian Germanist, literary critic and essayist Daniela Strigl.
"Tireless, loyal, curious, attentive chronicler"
The jury's reasoning stated that there is probably no other writer in Europe who ponders this small area west of the Russian Empire more often and more persistently than Karl-Markus Gauß. In particular, all the minorities "with their strange customs, languages, customs, literatures and religions" in Gauß, who himself comes from a so-called Danube Swabian family, "found their tireless, loyal, curious, attentive chronicler".
For more than 40 years, "this traveler, who is praised for his stylistic subtleties and avoids any know-it-all pathos, has been aware of the cultural losses (especially in Southeastern Europe) and holds against them the historically accumulated actual wealth." At home in Salzburg, Karl-Markus Gauß wrote travelogues about his incessant wanderings, which are available in more than ten books, or he edited the literary magazine "Literatur und Critique". And if he ever has to look after the house, "he goes on an 'adventurous journey through my room,' one of his great books."
With the award of the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding, "a great European writer will be honored who continues the brilliant series of Central European winners from Aleksandar Tišma to Claudio Magris."
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For »Afropean«: Johny Pitts receives the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding
The Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding has been awarded annually since 1994 and is endowed with 20,000 euros.
In 2021 the British essayist and photographer Johny Pitts received an award for his book »Afropean«.
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