Dana Vowinckel Receives the Mara-Cassens-Preis 2023
News06.12.2023
Dana Vowinckel has been awarded the Mara-Cassens-Preis 2023 for her debut novel The World in a Ziplock Bag.
In their report, the judges had the following to say about the winning work: »Dana Vowinckel is an impressive author who has written a complex and intelligent novel that tells much more than just one story. She writes in a calm and composed tone about a family, about homesickness and being on the road, meditates on themes such as belonging, heritage, pain and foreignness, painting a detailed picture of our society with all its prejudices and antisemitism. As readers, we follow the entanglements and plot developments with interest, and the characters are elaborated with great empathy and informed by profound, convincing, detailed knowledge. This Jewish family history provides a reflection of the diversity and complexity of Jewish life in Germany or in its interactions with Germany … The novel skilfully depicts its characters in a language that is at once lively, refreshingly authentic, and full of cultural and intellectual references and allusions. With an artful air of confidence, the text is shot through with Hebrew and English passages. The World in a Ziplock Bag is a novel for our times – by an author standing at the beginning of a promising literary career.«
The Mara-Cassens-Preis is endowed with 20,000 EUR, making it the richest prize for a debut novel written in German. The prize is intended to give authors some time to dedicate themselves exclusively to writing after publishing their debut novel.
The official award ceremony will take place on 10 January 2024 at the Literaturhaus Hamburg, where journalist Marie Schmidt from the Süddeutsche Zeitung will give a speech and Dana Vowinckel will read from her novel.
For more information about The World in a Ziplock Bag, contact the foreign rights manager for your region.
In their report, the judges had the following to say about the winning work: »Dana Vowinckel is an impressive author who has written a complex and intelligent novel that tells much more than just one story. She writes in a calm and composed tone about a family, about homesickness and being on the road, meditates on themes such as belonging, heritage, pain and foreignness, painting a detailed picture of our society with all its prejudices and antisemitism. As readers, we follow the entanglements and plot developments with interest, and the characters are elaborated with great empathy and informed by profound, convincing, detailed knowledge. This Jewish family history provides a reflection of the diversity and complexity of Jewish life in Germany or in its interactions with Germany … The novel skilfully depicts its characters in a language that is at once lively, refreshingly authentic, and full of cultural and intellectual references and allusions. With an artful air of confidence, the text is shot through with Hebrew and English passages. The World in a Ziplock Bag is a novel for our times – by an author standing at the beginning of a promising literary career.«
The Mara-Cassens-Preis is endowed with 20,000 EUR, making it the richest prize for a debut novel written in German. The prize is intended to give authors some time to dedicate themselves exclusively to writing after publishing their debut novel.
The official award ceremony will take place on 10 January 2024 at the Literaturhaus Hamburg, where journalist Marie Schmidt from the Süddeutsche Zeitung will give a speech and Dana Vowinckel will read from her novel.
For more information about The World in a Ziplock Bag, contact the foreign rights manager for your region.