literature
Valeria Gordeev wins Bachmann Prize
The German author Valeria Gordeev has won the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, which is endowed with 25,000 euros. photo
© Gerd Eggenberger/APA/dpa
The author from Tübingen is still working on her first novel. Even before its publication, she now has her breakthrough. She convinced the jury with her portrayal of a cleaning neurosis.
The renowned literature prize, which commemorates the Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-73), is endowed with 25,000 euros and is awarded by the city of Klagenfurt. Ana Marwan, who comes from Slovenia and lives near Vienna, won it last year.
In the reading competition, Gordeev won over the jury with her short story “He cleans”. In it, she linguistically dissects a man’s cleaning neurosis, but does not present him as a clinical case, but as a devoted person who cares for his mother and sister. Jury chairwoman Insa Wilke praised the text on Sunday as a “plea for sensitivity”.
Gordeev has been working on her debut novel for a number of years, which deals, among other things, with contemporary Russia. Her parents emigrated from the Soviet Union in the late 1970s, Gordeev was born in Tübingen in 1986. The author also works as an illustrator and songwriter.
During the literary competition, 12 authors from Germany, Austria and Switzerland read their texts from Thursday to Saturday. This time there were two new members on the seven-strong jury: the German cultural scientist, journalist and author Mithu Sanyal (“Identitti”) and the Swiss literary scholar Thomas Strässle.