Lutz Seiler receives Literature Prize of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation 2023

Lutz Seiler has been awarded the Literature Prize of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation 2023.

»Lutz Seiler writes memorable literary contemporary history and pinpoints the path to freedom. His guiding theme is to create a new narrative for people that gives them meaning and orientation in the face of a turning point in history,« says Norbert Lammert, Chairman of the Foundation.

The independent jury praises Lutz Seiler as an important author in many regards whose works are characterized by poetic linguistic power and contemporary political intensity. In his poetry (most recently schrift für blinde riesen, 2021), essays and above all in his major prose works, the two novels Kruso and Stern 111, which take place shortly before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he has given new impulses to contemporary German-language literature. His literary treatment of the transition from the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany is surprisingly different, politically sensitive and highly innovative from a literary standpoint. He talks about how people reorganise their lives at a turning point in time and of how freedom is possible in the face of great changes in political norms.

The Literature Prize of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation has been awarded since 1993 to authors who give voice to freedom. Lutz Seiler is the 30th recipient of the literature prize. Previous winners include Sarah Kirsch, Hilde Domin, Louis Begley, Norbert Gstrein, Adam Zagajewski, Patrick Roth, Herta Müller, Daniel Kehlmann, Ralf Rothmann, Uwe Tellkamp, Cees Nooteboom, Tuvia Rübner, Martin Mosebach, Rüdiger Safranski and Marica Bodrožic.

The award is endowed with 20,000 euros and will be presented to the author on July 2 in Weimar.

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