Stuttgart City Library, Stuttgart, Germany, interior
2021 Akutagawa Prize winner Mai Ishizawa is based in Germany. In the interview, she talks about the influence of the German language on her writing and how in her literary works memories from Japan mingle with her experiences in Germany.
The international literature festival berlin (ilb) ranks as one of the world’s most important literary events. Its comprehensive stylistic and thematic spectrum is unique – encompassing prose, poetry, non-fiction, graphic novels as well as children’s and young adult literature. The festival is usually held in September.
With up to 200 events and its own programme for children (lit.kid.COLOGNE), lit.COLOGNE is one of the largest literature festivals in Europe.
In terms of programming, lit.COLOGNE is characterised by encounters between authors and artists from all disciplines, by events on political and journalistic topics, as well as by specially conceived and written programmes on literary themes taking place in autumn.
Leipzig Book Fair is the most important get-together in the spring for the book and media industry. The event connects readers with authors, publishers and media companies from Germany and around the world. During the last edition of the book fair, 2,500 exhibitors from 46 countries presented their new books to be published during spring, with 286,000 visitors attending the exhibition grounds and throughout the city. Leipzig Book Fair is held in conjunction with the Manga-Comic-Con and the Leipzig liest (“Leipzig reads”) reading festival.
Leipzig Book Fair is the most important get-together in the spring for the book and media industry. The event connects readers with authors, publishers and media companies from Germany and around the world. During the last edition of the book fair, 2,500 exhibitors from 46 countries presented their new books to be published during spring, with 286,000 visitors attending the exhibition grounds and throughout the city. Leipzig Book Fair is held in conjunction with the Manga-Comic-Con and the Leipzig liest (“Leipzig reads”) reading festival.
Frankfurter Buchmesse is the international publishing industry’s biggest trade fair, with some 7,450 exhibitors from more than 100 countries, more than 300,000 visitors, over 4,000 events and some 10,000 accredited journalists in attendance. With BOOKFEST – Frankfurter Buchmesse’s international festival for literature, stories and ideas – there are also exciting events taking place around the city in October.
Since 1950, the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, the professional organisation of publishers and booksellers in the Federal Republic of Germany, has been awarding the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. It is linked with a prize of 25,000 EUR, which is raised by the publishers and booksellers. The Peace Prize demonstrates the book trade’s commitment to serving international understanding between nations and cultures.
The Leipzig Book Fair Prize celebrates outstanding new publications written in German. What’s special about it is that there are three prizes awarded – fiction, non-fiction/essay and translation – making this a true recognition of contemporary literature. The prize is endowed with a total of 60,000 EUR.
The award ceremony takes place on the first day of the annual Leipzig Book Fair, in the Glass Hall of the Leipziger Messe.
The German Book Prize is presented to the best German-language novel just before the start of the Frankfurt Book Fair as an annual award from the Foundation for Book Culture and the Promotion of Reading of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association. The Prize is intended to draw attention beyond national borders to authors writing in German, to reading and to the keynote medium of the book.
The Georg Büchner Prize is a prestigious German prize established in 1923 by the government of Volksstaat Hessen (now state of Hesse) to honour its native son Georg Büchner, a noted dramatist. A 1951 agreement between Hessen and the German Academy for Language and Literature reconceived the Büchner Prize as a purely literary honour. Conferred annually by the German Academy, it rewards German writers and poets who contributed significantly to German culture.
Since 1988, the German Literature Fund has endowed the Paul Celan Prize, which was initially awarded for outstanding literary translations from French into German. Since 1994, the prize has been open to all languages and honors mainly German translators. The prize is awarded at the Frankfurt Book Fair and is currently endowed with 20000 EUR.
Established in 2009 and founded by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of the Cultures of the World) and the Elementarteilchen foundation, the International Literature Award honors an outstanding work of contemporary international literature and its translation into German. The prize is endowed with 35,000 EUR and is shared between author and translator.
Established in 1996 and funded by the German government, the Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize is awarded each year to honor an outstanding literary translation from German into English published in the USA the previous year. The prizewinning translator receives $10,000.
The Kakehashi Literature Award has been awarded every two years since 2013 by the Goethe-Institut Tokyo and the Merck company to promote contemporary German literature and its translation into Japanese. Endowed with a total of 20,000 EUR, the Award honors outstanding authors whose literary work is to be discovered by a Japanese readership, as well as translators and publishers for their special role in cultural exchange.
The Writers in Residence Program Dilsberg/Heidelberg offers a work grant awarded by the “Kulturstiftung Rhein-Neckar-Kreis e.V.” in cooperation with Heidelberg UNESCO City of Literature for authors from UNESCO Cities of Literature in the “Commandant’s House Dilsberg”, at Dilsberg Fortress, in Neckargemünd (approximately 14 km from Heidelberg).
The Writers Residency is aimed at authors and critics, as well as artists whose practice is based on writing. It is a cooperation between Kunstverein München and the Department of Arts and Culture of the City of Munich. It consists of a two-month stay at Villa Waldberta on Lake Starnberg or Ebenböckhaus in Munich, and a monthly stipend.
The DAAD Künstlerprogramm offers six fellowships in the field of literature and writing. All literary forms are welcome: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and essays, as well as drama. That said, we also encourage writers who work between or beyond these traditional categories and who expand the understanding of contemporary literature, its practices, and modes of manifestation.
