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Young author Anna Stern received the 2020 Swiss Book Prize for her novel “All here, now,” as the winners announced Sunday at the Basel Theater.
Writer Anna Stern, pictured on September 22, 2020 in Rorschach (SG).
(sda) / rep.
· In the work awarded by the jury, Anna Stern describes the grieving process for a close friend who passed away at the age of 25. “Everything here, now” is equally the intimate protocol of a duel, a memory book and also linguistically unusual: it is never entirely clear whether the characters are a man or a woman. The book itself, published by the Zurich publisher Elster & Salis, has an unusual design.
Furthermore, the jury’s decision in favor of the prolific author, born in 1990, is quite unexpected. But Anna Stern had “gained an entirely new form and unheard of tones” from one of the oldest themes in literature, according to the statement on the ground.
Reduced celebration
In addition to Stern, Dorothee Elmiger was also nominated for the novel “From the Sugar Factory”, Tom Kummer for his novel “From Bad Parents”, Charles Lewinsky for “The Half Beard” and Karl Rühmann for “The Hero”.
The award ceremony took place at the Basel Theater, but to a lesser extent due to the pandemic. Unlike in previous years, only the winner of the award was present. The reading tour, which started at the Frankfurt Book Fair and passed through Switzerland, Germany and Austria, could not be carried out. Those responsible also announced that the money that sponsors usually spend in the celebration in honor of the nominees will be given to the authors this year.
83 presentations
The Swiss Book Prize is endowed with 30,000 francs; The other four shortlisted authors will each receive CHF 3,000. In September, the jury selected the five nominees from 83 books submitted. Eligible for the Swiss Book Prize 2020 were German-language literary and essay works by Swiss or Swiss authors that were published between October 2019 and September 2020.
The Swiss Book Prize was awarded for the thirteenth time this year. It was started by the Basel Literature Association and the Swiss Association of Booksellers and Publishers. The federal government does not support the award, as the Swiss Book Award only considers Swiss German-language literature. Sibylle Berg (“GRM. Brainfuck”), Peter Stamm (“The Gentle Indifference of the World”) and Jonas Lüscher (“Kraft”) had won the award for the past three years.
