WORTMELDUNGEN Literaturpreis 2023: Shortlist nominations for Sasha Marianna Salzmann and Judith Schalansky

The WORTMELDUNGEN Ulrike Crespo Literaturpreis, the Crespo Foundation’s literary award for critical short texts, honours excellent literary positions that draw attention to current social injustices. The aim is to promote critical voices, but also to broaden the public discourse. Recent laureates include Marion Poschmann, Thomas Stangl and Petra Piuk.

The interdisciplinary jury has nominated five titles for the shortlist for the following reasons: »Carry on as before? The fact that the commitment of literature has faced challenges in the last three years that were unknown in previous decades has to do with ever new flash points. Today, relying on the power of words is perhaps like the proverbial whistling in the dark. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, we need texts that critically examine the global situation. Texts that try to understand. The jury of the WORTMELDUNGEN Ulrike Crespo Literaturpreis 2023 has chosen five contributions for its shortlist that reflect on social and world-political areas of tension in a very special way. [...]«
 

Suhrkamp author Sasha Marianna Salzmann (Im Menschen muss alles herrlich sein (2021), Außer sich (2017)) has been nominated for the essay »Der große Hunger und das lange Schweigen« (»The Great Hunger and the Long Silence«), about which the jury states:

»With linguistic elegance and acumen, Sasha Marianna Salzmann attempts to approach Ukrainian history and the present through questioning, tentatively, pondering and informing herself. Based on the premise that history is a juxtaposition of singular narratives, Salzmann’s literary triad consists of listening to what is said as well as to what is unsaid, remembering, and permeating. In the process, Salzmann allows the many years of silence within the family to resound just as much as proverbs or even ›linguistic monstrosities‹. Salzmann’s essay nestles up against the singular stories of the others without being taken in by them. Thus, ›Der große Hunger und das lange Schweigen‹ is a prime example of a gripping, illuminating and linguistically excellently crafted essay.«

Judith Schalansky (Verzeichnis einiger Verluste (2018), Der Hals der Giraffe (2011)), is chosen for her text »Schwankende Kanarien« (»Faltering Canaries«). The jury states:

»The image of the canaries, the songbirds that are used as ›guard animals‹ in the darkness of potentially deadly mining shafts and whose death warns the miners of their own impending death by suffocation, songbirds that, unaware of their task, produce a simultaneous abundance of beauty – this is the image that guides Schalansky’s text. In a masterful way, the dramaturgy of a possible narrative is combined with the drama of the possible end of the world, the disastrous ecological ›tipping points‹ at which everything is decided. It is not only the canaries that falter before they fall from the perch to die; the image of the canary as a warning signal also begins to falter when one follows the author in her exploration of the complex interpenetration of nature and culture. A sombrely wise, a poetically wise text.«

The annual WORDMELDUNGEN-Literaturpreis is endowed with 35,000 Euros, the shortlist nominees are awarded 3,500 Euros each for their placement. The winner will be announced in March 2023.

For more information please visit Sasha Marianna Salzmann's and Judith Schalansky's Foreign Rights Websites or contact the respective Rights Manager.