CKCU Literary News
Wednesday May 3rd, 2023 with Hans G. Ruprecht
CKCU-Literary News Senior correspondent Friederike Knabe in conversation about the Leipzig Book Fair 2023, and the Ottawa International Writers Festival.

🔶WINNERS OF THIS YEAR'S LEIPZIG BOOK FAIR PRIZE: DINÇER GÜÇYETER, REGINA SCHEER AND JOHANNA SCHWERING Finally another book fair - finally another award ceremony with applauding guests in the glass hall and happy winners on the big stage, whose joy about the award can be seen and experienced. The seven-member jury has just chosen Dinçer Güçyeter in the fiction category for his family portrait “Our Germany Fairy Tale”. The prize in the non-fiction/essay category went to Regina Scheer for her participating biography “Bittere Brunnen. Hertha Gordon-Walcher and the Dream of Revolution”. In the Translation category, Johanna Schwering was honored for her translation of the book "Die Cousinen" by Argentinian writer Aurora Venturini. Fiction category Dinçer Güçyeter | "Our Germany Fairy Tale" | microtext To justify: Told in a traditional and innovative queer way, this immigrant story pulls you in from the start with its emotionality and great political significance. The novel looks at German and European conditions, lets the words fly to heaven, but at the same time does not omit the humiliations on the ground. Dinçer Güçyeter captures stories with a net that is more delicately woven than a butterfly net, can turn painful moments into comic ones, and with “Unser Deutschlandsmärchen” has given us a polyphonic novel whose poetic chorus will continue to ring out. The author: Dinçer Güçyeter is a theater maker, poet, editor and publisher. In 2012 he founded the Elif Verlag with a focus on poetry and finances it to this day as a part-time forklift driver. In 2017 Elif Verlag published "Aus Glut geschnitzt" and in 2021 "My Prince, I am the Ghetto". In 2022, Güçyeter was awarded the Peter Huchel Prize. Category non-fiction/essay writing Regina Scheer | "Bitter fountains. Hertha Gordon-Walcher and the dream of revolution Penguin publisher To justify: With "Bittere Brunnen" Regina Scheer traces the extraordinary and exemplary life of Hertha Gordon-Walcher and at the same time tells a chronicle of the socialist and feminist movements in the 20th century. "Bittere Brunnen" goes far beyond an ordinary biography: the author masterfully and transparently interweaves historical research with personal memories. Her masterly memory helped her with this, with which she created a collection piece by piece. This narrative non-fiction book stands for great openness in dealing with breaks, inconsistencies and gaps in our knowledge of biographies - and is a precise documentation of political connections, the traces of which shape the present. The author: Regina Scheer works as a freelance author and editor. She published several books on German-Jewish history. Her first two novels "Machandel" (Knaus Verlag, 2014) and "Gott lives in Wedding" (Penguin, 2019) were big hits with the public. In 2014 she received the Mara Cassens Prize for “Machandel”. Translation category Johanna Schwering Aurora Venturini: "The Cousins" | dtv To justify: Schmuddelliese – words that we thought we had long forgotten – Schwering conjures up light again or introduces new ones that make sense straight away that have never been heard before: Stilletümpel. Her words create atmospheres and let us smell the smell of the big city, the ozone and the orange blossom from the book pages. Schwering's translation boldly takes up the outrageousness of the original and follows the peculiar grammar rules of the original as well as its special harshness and its sparkling wit. It is thanks to her that this fabulous novel about women artists is the first book by Argentinian Aurora Venturini to be published in German. Hopefully many more will follow, naturally translated by Johanna Schwering. The author: Johanna Schwering works as a freelance editor and translator from Spanish and has translated volumes of poetry by Maricela Guerrero and Legna Rodriguez Iglesias into German. In 2018, her translation of Maricela Guerrero’s volume of poetry “Reibungen” received a poetry recommendation from the German Academy for Language and Poetry, the Poetry Cabinet Foundation and the House of Poetry. About the Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair The Leipzig Book Fair Prize is awarded by a seven-person jury: under the direction of Insa Wilke, Moritz Baßler, Anne-Dore Krohn, Andreas Platthaus, Maryam Aras, Shirin Sojitrawalla and Cornelia Geißler selected the nominees. Since 2005, the Leipzig Book Fair prize, worth a total of 60,000 euros, has honored outstanding new German-language publications and translations in the categories of fiction, non-fiction/essay writing and translation. The Free State of Saxony and the City of Leipzig support the Leipzig Book Fair Prize. The partner of the prize is the Literary Colloquium Berlin. The media partner is the customer magazine buchjournal, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and WELT AM SONNTAG. https://www.leipziger-buchmesse.de/de/pressemitteilungen/ausgezeichnet-mit-dem-diesjaehrigen-preis-der-leipziger-buchmesse-dincer-guecyeter-regina-scheer-und-johanna-schwering 🔶Ausgezeichnet mit dem diesjährigen Preis der Leipziger Buchmesse: Dinçer Güçyeter, Regina Scheer und Johanna Schwering Endlich wieder Buchmesse – endlich wieder eine Preisverleihung mit applaudierenden Gästen in der Glashalle und glücklichen Preisträger:innen auf der großen Bühne, deren Freude über die Auszeichnung man sehen und erleben kann. Die siebenköpfige Jury kürte soeben in der Kategorie Belletristik Dinçer Güçyeter für sein Familienportrait „Unser Deutschlandmärchen“. Der Preis in der Kategorie Sachbuch/Essayistik ging an Regina Scheer für ihre teilnehmende Biographik „Bittere Brunnen. Hertha Gordon-Walcher und der Traum von der Revolution“. In der Kategorie Übersetzung wurde Johanna Schwering für ihre Übersetzung des Buches „Die Cousinen“ der argentinischen Schriftstellerin Aurora Venturini geehrt. https://www.leipziger-buchmesse.de/de/pressemitteilungen/ausgezeichnet-mit-dem-diesjaehrigen-preis-der-leipziger-buchmesse-dincer-guecyeter-regina-scheer-und-johanna-schwering