By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘A Pleasantly Undogmatic Relationship to the World’
Our readership is familiar with the €25,000 (US$27,107) German Book Prize for fiction, awarded by the Stiftung Buchkultur und Leseförderung des Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, the foundation of Germany’s publishers and booksellers association.
Today (August 22), the program has announced the longlist of 20 titles in competition for this influential award.
Drawn from an initial submission load of 196 novels, it’s interesting to look at the large number of independent publishers represented here, among them Verlag Voland & Quist; Klett-Cotta with two longlisted novels; Vienna’s Picus Verlag; Wallstein Verlag; Zurich’s Diogenes Verlag; and Carl Hanser.
The 2023 German Book Prize Longlist
- Tomer Dotan-Dreyfus: Birobidschan (Verlag Voland & Quist, February 2023)
- Raphaela Edelbauer: Die Inkommensurablen (Klett-Cotta, January 2023)
- Sherko Fatah: Der große Wunsch (Verlagsgruppe Random House/Luchterhand Literaturverlag, August 2023)
- Elena Fischer: Paradise Garden (Diogenes Verlag, August 2023)
- Charlotte Gneuß: Gittersee (Holtzbrinck/S. Fischer Verlag, August 2023)
- Luca Kieser: Weil da war etwas im Wasser (Picus Verlag, August 2023)
- Angelika Klüssendorf: Risse (Bonnier/Piper Verlag, August 2023)
- Sepp Mall: Ein Hund kam in die Küche (Leykam, August 2023)
- Terézia Mora: Muna oder Die Hälfte des Lebens (Verlagsgruppe Random House/Luchterhand Literaturverlag, August 2023)
- Thomas Oláh: Doppler (Müry Salzmann Verlag, February 2023)
- Angelika Overath: Unschärfen der Liebe (Verlagsgruppe Random House/Luchterhand Literaturverlag, April 2023)
- Necati Öziri: Vatermal (Ullstein/Claassen, July 2023)
- Teresa Präauer: Kochen im falschen Jahrhundert (Wallstein Verlag, February 2023)
- Anne Rabe: Die Möglichkeit von Glück (Klett-Cotta, March 2023)
- Kathrin Röggla: Laufendes Verfahren (Holtzbrinck/S. Fischer Verlag, July 2023)
- Tonio Schachinger: Echtzeitalter (Holtzbrinck/Rowohlt Verlag, March 2023)
- Sylvie Schenk: Maman (Carl Hanser Verlag, February 2023)
- Clemens J. Setz: Monde vor der Landung (Suhrkamp Verlag, February 2023)
- Tim Staffel: Südstern (Kanon Verlag Berlin, September 2023)
- Ulrike Sterblich: Drifter (Holtzbrinck/Rowohlt Verlag Hundert Augen, July 2023)
A shortlist in this year’s German Book Prize is expected to be named by the jury on September 19. Books eligible this year have been (or will be) published between October 2022 and September 19.
As Publishing Perspectives readers know, the German Book Prize in 2022 went to Kim de L’Horizon’s Blutbuch (Blood Book), published in July by DuMont Buchverlag, one of Germany’s key independent houses.
Blutbuch explores family secrets, as triggered by a grandmother’s dementia and told by a narrator who is sexually non-binary and experiencing a certain release in writing.
A shortlist in this year’s German Book Prize is expected to be named by the jury on September 19. Books eligible this year have been (or will be) published between October 2022 and September 19.
Katharina Teutsch
In a comment on the longlist announcement today, jury chair Katharina Teutsch is quoted, saying, “A longlist is not simply a list of titles that a jury finds deserving of an award. It represents a collective reading process. What drives us? What is important to us? What literary discoveries have we made?
“Our selection this year once again proves that contemporary German-language literature is full of surprises. Newcomers appear confidently alongside established authors; small presses alternate with large publishers; stories of tragical gravity stand next to fantastical escapades.
“Recognizing literary humor was also important to this year’s jury. What impressed us particularly about the selected titles at this moment in time is not only their narrative fuel but also the expression of a pleasantly undogmatic relationship to the world.”
The 2023 Jury
This year’s jury in the German Book Prize comprises:
- Chair: Katharina Teutsch (independent critic)
- Shila Behjat (journalist and publicist)
- Heinz Drügh (Goethe University Frankfurt am Main)
- Melanie Muhl (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)
- Lisa Schumacher (bookshop “Steinmetz’sche Buchhandlung”, Offenbach)
- Florian Valerius (bookshop “Gegenlicht Buchhandlung”, Trier)
- Matthias Weichelt (Sense and Form literary journal)
In addition to the winning author’s €25,000 purse, each of the five finalists receives €2,500 (US$2,737).
A programming note: In the 2023 edition of our Publishing Perspectives Forum at Frankfurter Buchmesse, we’ll welcome a group of diverse independent publishers from several markets and nations to compare and contrast the issues and challenges they see in the field of independent publishing this season.
That session is set for 11 a.m. on Frankfurt Wednesday, October 18, in Room Spektrum, Level 2 at the Messe Frankfurt Congress Center. More information is here.
More from Publishing Perspectives on the German Book Prize is here, and on publishing and book awards in general is here. More on the German book market is here.