Twelve years ago, Clemens Setz won the Leipzig Book Fair prize once before, and now the Austrian has been nominated again for his novel Monde vor der Landing. A total of 15 books are in the running for the prize, which is awarded in three categories. Five books each have been nominated in the categories of fiction, non-fiction/essay writing and translation.
In the fiction category, Ulrike Draesner (“The Transformed”), Joshua Groß (“Extreme Prana”), Dinçer Güçyeter (“Our German Tale”) and Angela Steidele (“Enlightenment. A Novel”) are also on the shortlist.
According to the jury, the books showed ambivalence and complex conflict situations
In the case of non-fiction, works by Jan Philipp Reemtsma (“Christoph Martin Wieland. The invention of modern German literature”), Regina Scheer (“Bitter Fountain. Hertha Gordon-Walcher and the dream of the revolution”) and Simone Schlindwein (“Der green war”) selected. Nominees in the Translation category include Nicole Nau, Antje Rávik Strubel and Johanna Schwering.
Jury chairwoman Insa Wilke explained: “This year we were fascinated by the different forms of expression across the divisions.” They reflected questions of the present, showed ambivalences and complex conflict situations.
The Leipzig Book Fair Prize will be awarded on April 27th. According to the fair, 465 works from 161 publishers were submitted this year. The prize is endowed with a total of 60,000 euros. The Leipzig Book Fair takes place from April 27th to 30th.