The end of the year is a good time to do a round-up of winners of this year’s major German literary prizes.  We have featured these in the last two years on “In the spotlight” pages on our website (2011 and 2012) and continue to use them to guide our acquisitions policy for modern literature.

Georg-Büchner-Preis, awarded by the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung in Darmstadt, a prestigious prize with a long history of recognising important German language authors for their contribution to German cultural life, has been won by Sibylle Lewitscharoff.  Please see here for our holdings of her works. See here for further information.

Deutscher Buchpreis, awarded by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels in Frankfurt am Main, is a relatively new prize, first awarded in 2005 and regarded as the German equivalent of the Man Booker prize.  It has been won this year by Terezia Mora for her novel Das Ungeheuer  (C207.c.7548).

The five other books on the shortlist were:

• Nie mehr Nacht by Mirko Bonné (C207.c.8729)
• Nichts von euch auf Erden  by Reinhard Jirgl (C207.c.4388)
• Im Stein  by Clemens Meyer (C207.c.7528)
• Die Sonnenposition by Marion Poschmann (C203.d.3814)
• Die Ordnung der Sterne über Como by Monika Zeiner (C203.d.4084)

Preis der Leipziger Buchmesse (Belletristik), awarded by the Leipziger Buchmesse, is equally new but has quickly established itself on the literary scene. This year it has been won by David Wagner for Leben (C203.d.4423).

Preis der SWR-Bestenliste, with a 30 year history, is a prize awarded by the German television broadcaster SWR to an author who has had a book on one of the monthly Bestenliste of the previous 12 months as decided by a jury of literary critics.  The Library uses the Bestenliste as a useful acquistions tool.  This year’s winner is Ulrike Edschmid for Das Verschwinden des Philip S. (C203.d.3038).

Schweizer Buchpreis is a relatively new prize, having first been given out in 2008. It is awarded by LiteraturBasel in conjunction with the Schweizer Buchhändler- und Verleger-Verband (SBVV) for a book by a German-speaking Swiss resident. This year’s winner is Jens Steiner for Carambole (C203.d.4106).

Aspekte-Literaturpreis, awarded since the late 1970s by the German television broadcaster ZDF for the best German language debut novel, has been won this year by Eberhard Rathgeb for Kein Paar wie wir. (The Library is in the process of acquiring this title. This post will be updated with the classmark on arrival of the book).

Adelbert-von-Chamisso-Preis, awarded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung since 1985, is given to a work whose author’s mother tongue is not German. This year the winner is Marjana Gaponenko for Wer ist Martha? (C203.d.4424).

Katharine Dicks