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Visitors walk up a staircase with the Leipzig Book Fair logo.
© Hendrik Schmidt/dpa
The nominations for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize have been announced.
This year's selection contains not only surprising names, but also unusual shapes.
Leipzig - The Leipzig Book Fair Prize is daring to introduce a new variety of formats in its anniversary year.
This year, the jury nominated a graphic novel for the first time in the fiction category, an audio book was included in the non-fiction category for the first time, and the nominated translations included a volume of poetry.
The nominees - five per category - were announced on Thursday.
In the fiction category, four female and one authors made it onto the shortlist.
The graphic novel is “Comrade Cuckoo” by Anke Feuchtenberger - according to the jury, a fantastic journey to East Germany.
With Inga Machel (“On the Tracks”), Barbi Markovic (“Mini Horror”) and Dana Vowinckel (“Waters in the Ziplock”), the jury of critics selected three comparatively young authors.
The list is completed by bestselling author Wolf Haas, who looks back on his mother's life story in “Property”.
The jury chairwoman Insa Wilke emphasized that all three categories reflected “an increased engagement with questions of political and historical consciousness”.
This year, 177 publishers submitted 486 works.
The award will be presented on the first day of the Leipzig Book Fair on March 21st.
The prize is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and is endowed with a total of 60,000 euros - 15,000 euros each goes to the winner of the respective category, and the nominees also receive 1,000 euros each.
“The refreshing thing about the Leipzig Book Fair prize is that you never know what’s coming.
It's a miracle bag - and that has only increased in recent years," said the literary critic and head of the Literaturhaus Hamburg, Rainer Moritz.
This year's selection once again contains many surprises.
He sees it as positive that the people of Leipzig are willing to experiment with formats.
“That expands the spectrum,” said Moritz.
In the non-fiction/essay category, “Voices of the Century 1945-2000” is the first audio book to be nominated.
The jury explained its choice by making it possible to experience German history in original sounds - something that only an audio book can do.
Also nominated were Christina Morina (“A thousand departures. The Germans and their democracy since the 1980s”), Tom Holert (“approx. 1972” Violence - Environment - Identity - Method”), Jens Beckert (“Sold Future. Why the fight against climate change threatens to fail") and Christina Clemm ("Against misogyny").
In the translation category, Ki-Hyang Lee (“The Curse of the Rabbit”), Klaus Detlef Olof (“18 Kilometers to Ljubljana”), Lisa Palmes (“Bitternis”), Jennie Seitz (“Take My Pain. Stories from the War”) and Ron Winkler (“Beginning with San Francisco. Poems”) were selected.
This year the Leipzig Book Fair will take place from March 21st to 24th.
After the departure of long-time boss Oliver Zille, it will be the first trade fair under the responsibility of the new director Astrid Böhmisch.
Last year, 274,000 visitors came to the trade fair and the associated “Leipzig reads” festival.
dpa