literature
Dinçer Güçyeter wins the Book Fair’s Fiction Prize
The author Dinçer Güçyeter receives the Leipzig Book Fair Prize in the Fiction category. photo
© Hendrik Schmidt/dpa
Many millions of guest workers came to West Germany in the 1950s and 1970s, including Dinçer Güçyeter’s parents. He has now been honored for his polyphonic family history.
The poet and theater maker Dinçer Güçyeter has won the prestigious Leipzig Book Fair prize in the fiction category. He was honored on Thursday for his debut novel “Our Germany Fairy Tale”. The author, born in Nettetal (NRW) in 1979, tells of the pain, deprivation, loneliness and longings of his parents, who came to Germany from western Turkey as guest workers at the end of the 1960s.
The jury appreciated Güçyeter’s poetic language. In addition, his family history is representative of many guest workers who had to experience racism and difficult working conditions.
Three categories
The Leipzig Book Fair Prize is endowed with a total of 60,000 euros and is awarded in three categories. Each winner receives 15,000 euros, plus 1,000 euros for a nomination.
Regina Scheer prevailed in the non-fiction/essay category. Her book “Bittere Brunnen” deals with the life of Hertha Gordon-Walcher. The Jewish communist was secretary to the communist politician and women’s rights activist Clara Zetkin in the 1920s. According to the jury, the author Scheer was friends with Gordon-Walcher and was able to fall back on many personal conversations with her.
Johanna Schwering won in the translation category. She translated Aurora Venturini’s coming-of-age novel The Cousins from Argentinian Spanish.