Literature: Jan Wagner wins the Leipzig Book Fair – tagesspiegel

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The Leipzig Book Fair Prize has been awarded for the first time to a poet. Jan Wagner is honored for his poetry collection “rain barrels variations”. Philipp Ther receives for “The New Order on the old continent” the prize for the best non-fiction book.

The author Jan Wagner has won the prestigious Leipzig Book Fair Prize was the first lyricist. The jury selected in Thursday’s Fiction his poems “rain barrels variations”. Other winners include the translator Mirjam Pressler and nonfiction author Philipp Ther. The winner took the prize of € 45 000 in prize on Thursday against equally. The price is one of the most important literary awards in Germany.

For the first time, a book of poetry was awarded in the category Literature.

“rain barrels Variations” Jan Wagner busy with nature in all its forms. “Formal masterfully and effortlessly he takes Weidekätzchen and strangler fig, Morel, reporting, Olm and otters into poetic sight, zooms and fades associative to the view of the reader widens and the feeling stops for a moment to the essence of things penetrated to be “judged the jury.

Wagner, born in 1971 in Hamburg, lives as a poet, translator and publisher in Berlin. His first book of poems “pilot hole in the sky” appeared in 2001. Most recently, he was honored this year with the Moerike price. He sat down in Leipzig against Teresa Präauer (“Johnny and Jean”), Ursula Ackrill (“inside square brackets, in January”), Norbert Scheuer (“The Language of the Birds”) and Michael wild grove (“The Smile of alligators”) by. Last year, Sasa Stanisic was awarded the Literature Prize for his novel “Before the feast.”

Mirjam Pressler is honored for the best translation

In the category of non-fiction / essay writing was the award to Philipp Ther for the book “The New Order on the old continent. A History of the neo-liberal Europe “. “Reports, analysis and economic data together to create a text about the post-Soviet space, you should read the one who wants to understand the recent conflicts in Europe,” it said by the jury. Ther was born in 1967, is a professor at the Institute for East European History at the University of Vienna. Previously, he was also John F. Kennedy Fellow at Harvard University.

The prize for the best translation was Mirjam Pressler for their transmission of “Judas” by Amos Oz from the Hebrew. She is recognized for her transfer of “Judas” by the Israeli author Amos Oz from the Hebrew. “With artful restraint Mirjam Pressler strikes a note of this great storyteller and makes his rugged heat on German felt” it said by the jury. Pressler, born in 1940, is a writer and translator from Hebrew, English and Dutch. Translated among others Aharon Appelfeld, Zeruya Shalev and John Steinbeck. The Leipzig Book Fair Prize was awarded for the eleventh time. (AP)