By Ingrid Süßmann
When it comes to literature for young adults in Germany, there is no way around the Buxtehude Bull (Buxtehuder Bulle), Germanys most renowned prize for young people’s literature. Basically, what the German Book Prize is for “grown-up literature,” the Buxtehude Bull is for a younger audience.
Victoria Aveyard
This year, 26-year-old American author Victoria Aveyard is the winner of this prestigious literary award for her novel, The Red Queen (published by Carlsen in Germany). Aveyard will receive prize-winnings of €5,000 (US$5,575). Fifteen-year old Lea Backhaus, one of the jurors, calls it a “captivating phantasy novel with a compelling love story and a very surprising ending.”
While many other literary prizes focus on authors from certain regions only, the Buxtehude Bull accepts submissions from both national and international authors whose books have been published within the last year.
This year, 90 titles were submitted and 8 made it to the shortlist, which was then evaluated by a jury of 11 adults and 11 teenagers. A jury as diverse as this is a trademark of the Buxtehude Bull, which was established in the early 1970s in order to get young people interested in reading and to promote leading YA titles. The prize functions as a seal of quality for young adult books.
Previous winners include famous German authors Michael Ende, Gudrun Pausewang and Jostein Gaarder. Many Buxtehude Bull winners have gone on to become household names, 75 percent of the winning titles since 1971 are still in print.
Here’s a list of the winner plus the seven other shortlisted titles:
- Winner — Victoria Aveyard: Die rote Königin (Carlsen)
- Liz Coley: Scherbenmädchen (Bastei Lübbe)
- Ortwin Ramadan: T.R.O.J.A. Komplott (Coppenrath)
- Sabine Schoder: Liebe ist was für Idioten (Fischer)
- Lauren Miller: Eden Academy (Ravensburger)
- Angela Mohr: Ada: Am Anfang war die Finsternis (Arena)
- Jasmine Warga: Mein Herz und andere schwarze Löcher (Sauerländer)
- Meg Wolitzer: Was uns bleibt, ist jetzt (cbt)
For foreign rights inquiries about the German original titles (T.R.O.J.A. Komplott, Liebe ist was für Idioten, and Mein Herz und andere schwarze Löcher), please contact the following foreign rights departments: