Lutz Seiler awarded Bertolt-Brecht-Preis 2023

On April 20, 2023, Lutz Seiler is going to be presented with the literary award, endowed with 15,000 Euro.

In honour of Bertolt Brecht, born in Augsburg in 1898, the City of Augsburg has been awarding the Bertolt-Brecht-Preis since 1995 to writers whose literary work stands out in its critical examination of the present. The award-winning oeuvre enters into a discourse with the works of Bertolt Brecht and carries on his spirit. In the anniversary year of Bertolt Brecht’s 125th birthday, the prize will be awarded for the eleventh time.

The jury’s statement reads: »With his novels Kruso (2014) and Star 111 (2020), with his volumes of poetry, stories and essays, but also with his work as a literary mediator at the Peter Huchel House in Wilhelmshorst, Lutz Seiler has left a lasting mark on contemporary literary life. Seiler’s prose captivates with its magical sound. Poetic laconicism, probity, elegance and humour unfold in incomparable scenes. The texts of this poet recall the lost, call up the unfinished, and reach into the lifetime of the playwright from Augsburg: flight and migration, the consequences of the replacement of social systems, the work of memory, alternatives to the present situation.«

Previous winners of the prize include Franz Xaver Kroetz, Robert Gernhardt, Urs Widmer, Christoph Ransmayr, Dea Loher, Albert Ostermaier, Ingo Schulze, Silke Scheuermann, Nino Haratischwili and Sibylle Berg. The award ceremony will take place in Augsburg.