The Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) announces the seven-member jury of the International Literature Prize for 2023. 78 publishers submitted 151 books translated into German from 31 languages. For the first time, poetry could also be submitted.
Fig. above: V.l.n.r.: Juliane Liebert | Photo: Erman Aksoy, Ronya Othmann | Photo: Beliban Stolberg, Ibou Coulibaly Diop | Photo: Thabo Thindi, Ricardo Domeneck | Photo: Jonas Lindstroem, Deniz Utlu | Photo: Suhrkamp Verlag, Asal Dardan | Photo: Sarah Berger, Khuê Phạm | Photo: Alena Schmick
For the fifteenth time, the House of World Cultures and the Foundation Elementarteilchen are awarding the International Literature Prize. Endowed with 35,000 euros – 20,000 euros for the author, 15,000 euros for the translator – it honours an outstanding work of contemporary international literature in its first German translation. In this alliance, it honours both the original work and the translation. This dual focus makes it unique in the German prize landscape. Building on the prize’s legacy of broadening the understanding of heterogeneous forms of storytelling, this year German first translations of international poetry can also be submitted.
The Jury
Ibou Coulibaly Diop (1979, Segatta) is a literary scholar, curator and lecturer. He is a jury member of Resonanzen – Black Literature Festival, curated by Sharon Dodua Otoo, and publishes regularly on the literature of transculturality and the significance of African literature in the world of tomorrow. For the Berlin Senate, he is working on a concept for remembering colonialism, and for the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin he is active in the competence centre for decolonisation. Diop lives and works in Berlin.
Asal Dardan (1978, Tehran) is an author and publicist. She was awarded the Caroline Schlegel Prize for Essay Writing in 2020 for her text New Years. Her essay collection Betrachtungen einer Barbarin was nominated for the German Non-Fiction Prize in 2021 and the Clemens Brentano Prize in 2022. As a freelance author, she writes with a focus on socio-political topics for Zeit Online and Die Presse, among others. Dardan lives and works in Berlin and on the Swedish island of Öland.
Ricardo Domeneck (1977, São Paulo) is a writer, translator and editor of the literary magazine Peixe-boi. He has published nine volumes of poetry and two volumes of short stories in Brazil so far. He was a guest at the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, with a combination of reading and performance. His bilingual poetry collection Körper: ein Handbuch (2013) was published by Verlagshaus Berlin. Domeneck lives and works in Berlin.
Juliane Liebert (1989, Halle an der Saale) is a freelance author and journalist, among others for Der Spiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit. She writes prose and poetry, was a lecturer in poetry at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, and has published several books, including lieder an das große nichts (2021), Hurensöhne! Über die Schönheit und Notwendigkeit des Schimpfens (2020), Scheiß auf das Weltall (2017) and Der Körper ist ein billiger Koffer (2016). Liebert lives and works in Berlin.
Ronya Othmann (1993, Munich) is an author and journalist. She writes a column on domestic and foreign policy, Islamism and dictatorships for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. Her most recent publications are her poetry collection die verbrechen (2021), for which she received the Orphil Debut Prize and Horst Bienek Promotion Prize, and the novel Die Sommer (2020), for which she was awarded the Mara Cassens Prize. She is a member of the board of the newly founded PEN Berlin.
Khuê Phạm (1982, Berlin) is a journalist and writer. The Zeit editor was awarded the German Reporter:innen Prize for her journalistic work and nominated for the Egon Erwin Kisch Prize. Her debut novel Wherever You Are (2021) is a literary approach to her own family. With Alice Bota and Özlem Topçu, she published Wir neuen Deutschen (2012), which is about immigrant children and their place in Germany. Phạm lives and works in Berlin.
Deniz Utlu (1983, Hanover) is a writer and essayist. He received the Alfred Döblin Prize for an excerpt from the novel Vaters Meer (to be published in 2023). The novel Gegen Morgen was published in 2019. His novel Die Ungehaltenen (2014) was adapted for the stage at the Maxim Gorki Theatre. Utlu researches international human rights policy at the German Institute for Human Rights in Berlin. He teaches literary writing at the German Literature Institute Leipzig and at the Institute for Language Arts, Vienna. Utlu lives and works in Berlin.
Submissions
78 publishers submitted 151 books translated into German from 31 languages, including 11 poetry titles. Publishers who publish international literature in German translation had until 31 March to submit up to three titles. For the first time, lyric texts and their translation into German could also be submitted. From the submissions, the jury will first select a shortlist of six titles and, in a second step, the prize-winning duo of author and translator.
Partner
The International Literature Prize is awarded by the House of World Cultures and the Foundation Elementarteilchen (Hamburg).
The Elementarteilchen Foundation was founded in 2007 by Jan Szlovak (Chairman of the Board). As a funding foundation, it supports non-profit organisations and projects in climate and environmental protection, in the fight against female circumcision, landmine clearance and, especially in the Hamburg area, other non-profit organisations from various fields. Together with the HKW, it developed the International Literature Award in 2009, which – driven by the common interest in promoting international literatures and their translations – has since been awarded annually with its significant financial support.
Visit information
Due to renovation and maintenance work, the HKW will be closed until the end of May 2023. The house will reopen from 2 to 4 June 2023 with an opening weekend and the opening of the large-scale group exhibition project O Quilombismo: Of Resistance and Insistence. Of flight as attack. Of alternative democratic-egalitarian political philosophies.
The restaurant Weltwirtschaft is open daily. During the week from 12 noon to midnight and on weekends from 10 a.m. to midnight. For more information, visit the Weltwirtschaft website.
WHERE?
Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
10557 Berlin-Tiergarten
WHEN?
Announcement of the shortlist: mid-August 2023
Award ceremony on the roof terrace of the HKW: Saturday, 9. September 2023