Clemens Böckmann won for his text ‘how I missed the war’, Nicole Collignon for ‘Dinge, die passieren und passiert sind’ (Things that are happening and happened) and Giorgio Ferretti for ‘Übergesetzung’ (Transplacement). All three were responding to Judith Schalansky’s question: ‘If insufficient knowledge isn’t the reason for the alarming state of affairs today, it might well be insufficient imagination instead. What kind of language, and what kind of stories and images do you use to let people experience the approaching crises and tipping points?’

‘In a year conspicuous for the vast breadth of its literary approaches, the jury commends three exceptional texts that address catastrophes and tipping points in the world, in a manner that is exceptionally impressive and unexpected in terms of both language and content. While stylistically distinct, they all consider the subjective, intimate level alongside the overarching dimension of societal shifts and processes. They document an intense deliberation about language, about the body, about people in harmony and in conflict with the non-human world, where change is explored as an empowering and emancipatory force. What really stands out with these three texts is their courage in subverting readers’ expectations, which is what lets them capture their subject matter with such precision,’ was how the jury justified their decisions.

The members of the jury are Maryam Aras (literature critic), Anna Jung (programme director, Voland & Quist), Martin Kordic (author and editor, Carl Hanser Verlag), Anja Utler (poet, essayist and translator) and Jan Valk (editor and head of the literature department, Kunststiftung NRW).