In the television series Krimi.de, young detectives carry on investigations in four German cities: all without a special police unit and staff cars, but with courage and good ideas....
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The German Literature Days opened in Klagenfurt on Wednesday the 29th with the usual "Speech on Literature". As part of the festival, the prestigious Austrian Ingeborg Bachmann Prize for literature is awarded. This year's speaker, Swiss author and literary critic Iso Camartin warned the jury and the audience to exercise critical rigour in their decision. "Of course we can let anyone write what they want, but let us ensure that we don't waste our time with junk thoughts and word waste." It will be interesting to see whether his words are heeded. (Read the speech in full on the Bachmann Prize website which is full of other useful links.)
The 22,500 euro prize money is donated by the city of Klagenfurt in memory of its famous daughter Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-1973). (Read a biography in English here. Further information in German here and here)
The three-day literary marathon began yesterday, with renowned authors reading from their own unpublished works. This year's participating authors include Barbara Bongartz, Julia Schoch and Anne Weber. (Here a complete list and video portraits of the authors. Here a selection of excerpts. The magazine Volltext also offers many of the texts in full.) This year's jury includes Burkhard Spinnen, Ilma Rakusa, Norbert Miller, Heinrich Detering and jury president Iris Radisch.
What distinguishes this competition from others of similar rank is its transparency. The jury discusses the work with the authors immediately after the reading and the public can watch the entire proceedings live on ORF and 3sat, and follow them on the Internet. "What does this exceptional interplay between literature and the media mean for the participants?" asks Doris Moser in an English study "Reality-TV, cultural mission, literary marketing. The Ingeborg Bachmann Prize on television". (Download )
Previous winners include Ulrich Plenzdorf (1978), Sten Nadolny (1980), Wolfgang Hilbig (1989) and last year the prize went to Uwe Tellkamp. Here a list of all 28 winners and information on German and international literature prizes.)
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Since its publication in January, Helene Hegemann's novel "Axolotl Roadkill" has been at the centre of a debate whose vagaries of terminology have allowed the seriousness of the case to be downplayed. Philipp Theisohn wishes the literary establishment would drop all its talk of intertextuality in favour of a more democratic category: plagiarism.
UPDATE: The German Book Prize 2009 has been awarded to Katrin Schmidt for her novel "You're Not Going to Die". Read excerpts from all the shortlisted titles - including one from the Nobel Prize laureate Herta Müller's novel "Everything I Own I Carry With Me".
Günter Grass has just published his diary from 1990, recording the tumultous events after the fall of the Berlin Wall. "From Germany to Germany" is a list of ominous predictions for the future of German unity. The former GDR writer Monika Maron looks at how blinded Grass was by his own preconceptions.
This year Turkey was the guest country at the Frankfurt Book Fair. We introduce the books that attracted the most critical attention.
and all the best for 2009!
This year's prestigious Büchner Prize went to Austrian writer Josef Winkler. He talks to Paul Jandl about dung heaps, patriarchs, the fear of speechlessness and the elegance of John Paul II's coffin. Photo © Jerry Bauer / SV
The six finalists for the German Book Prize 2008, an annual award for the best German language novel, have now been announced. Signandsight.com presents English excerpts of the shortlisted titles for the first time.
The legendary German poets, Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan, met and fell in love in Vienna 1948. Their electric and torturous correspondence, which continued until 1961, has now been collected in book form for the first time. Ina Hartwig on what was probably the most complicated love story in post-war Germany.
The headlines were stolen by Charlotte Roche's moist little sex shocker and Jonathan Littell's sprawling SS fantasies but only two books united the critics: one is good and the other, utterly objectionable. There was a flurry of interest in some fabulous comics and a resurgence of the political and the historical novel. A dip into the books published in Germany this spring.