Deniz Ohde is awarded the »aspekte« Prize for Literature 2020

For her debut novel Sky Glow Deniz Ohde has been honoured with the aspekte Prize for Literature, the most important prize for debut works in Germany.

The jury states:
»A working-class flat at the outskirts of a West-German industrial area. A young woman who returns to her former home that breathes poverty, confinement and a working-class spirit. Visiting her father becomes a journey into her childhood and adolescence in which her background sticks to her like dirt, for everyone to see. The others’ class consciousness is as highly developed as the feeling of shame for her background and the fear of not belonging that shape the narrator. The promise of advancement through education has turned stale and can just barely be achieved.
In her novel Sky Glow Deniz Ohde creates the portrait of a social class from which there is no escape in soft and quiet sentences and images that leave long-lasting impressions. Discerning, subtly and without making value judgements she exposes, layer by layer, a part of our society that receives little attention and that has not yet been looked at this way. Sky Glow is a praiseworthy debut from a new literary voice in Germany.«

The aspekte Prize for Literature is awarded annually and is endowed with 10.000 Euros. Previous recipients include Georg Büchner Prize-winner Felicitas Hoppe and Nobel Prize-winner Herta Müller, as well as Suhrkamp authors Andreas Maier and Stephan Thome.

For more information please visit the author's Foreign Rights Website or contact the respective Rights Manager.