2009 German Book Prize Shortlist

by Pierre Joris · October 3, 2009

Via signandsight — who marvelously add links to English-language excerpts for each of the books! —here’s the equivalent of France’s Goncourt (though how equivalent it really is could only be settled by comparing the sales figures of the winners…)

The German Book Prize is presented to the best German-language novel just before the start of the Frankfurt Book Fair as an annual award from the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels Stifung – the Foundation of the German Publishers & Booksellers Association. The Prize is intended to draw attention beyond national borders to authors writing in German, to reading and to the keynote medium of the book.

The 2009 shortlist:

Rainer Merkel: “Light Years Away” (Lichtjahre Entfernt)

S. Fischer Verlag

About the book
English excerpt

Herta Müller: “Everything I Own I Carry With Me” (Atemschaukel)

Suhrkamp Verlag

About the book
English excerpt

Norbert Scheuer: “The Rushing of the Weir” (Überm Rauschen)

C.H.Beck Verlag

About the book
English excerpt

Katrin Schmidt: You’re Not Going to Die (Du Stirbst Nicht)

Kiepenheuer & Witsch Verlag

About the book
English excerpt

Clemens J. Setz: “Frequencies” (Die Frequenzen)
Residenz Verlag

About the book
English excerpt

Stephan Thome : “Border Walk” (Grenzgang)

Suhrkamp Verlag

About the book
English excerpt

The judges for the German Book Prize 2009 are: Richard Kämmerlings, Michael Lemling, Martin Lüdke, Lothar Müller, Iris Radisch, Daniela Strigl and Hubert Winkels

The winner will be announced at the award ceremony on October 12th.

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Tags: German Book Prize

Reading

Segue (Artists Space, 11 Cortlandt Alley, NYC)

Saturday, August 17, 5:00PM

STAND4 Gallery: Karstic-Action VOTE 2024!

Performance - Vote drive - Exhibition by Nicole le Peyrafitte & Pierre Joris
STAND4 Gallery, 414 78th Street, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York 11209

Friday, September 6, 7:00PM

Adeena Karasick, Pierre Joris & Nicole Peyrafitte

Unnameable Books, 615 Vanderbilt, Brooklyn New York

Thursday, September 12, 6:30PM

A Tribute to Tyrone Williams

Join us in honoring the life, work and legacy of seminal poet and scholar Tyrone Williams. Poets House, 10 River Terrace, New York, NY

Saturday, September 14, 12:00PM

Pierre Joris, Scott Laudati & Nicole Peyrafitte

Lansingburgh Historical Society, River Poems at The Herman Melville House, 2 114th Street, Troy, NY 12182

Wednesday, November 6, 7:00PM

Jerome Rothenberg (1931-2024) Celebration

St Marks Poetry Project, 131 E. 10th Street, New York, NY 10003

Saturday, November 23

Poetry Reading

Tucson POG/Chax (details to be announced)

Pierre Joris, born in Strasbourg, France in 1946, was raised in Luxembourg. Since age 18, he has moved between Europe, the Maghreb & the US & holds both Luxembourg & American citizenship. He has published over 80 books of poetry, essays, translations & anthologies — most recently Interglacial Narrows (Poems 1915-2021) & Always the Many, Never the One: Conversations In-between, with Florent Toniello, both from Contra Mundum Press. In 2020 his two final Paul Celan translations came out: Microliths They Are, Little Stones (Posthumous prose, from CMP) & The Collected Earlier Poetry (FSG). Forthcoming are: Paul Celan’s “Todesfuge” (Small Orange Import, 2023) & Diwan of Exiles: A Pierre Joris Reader (edited with Ariel Reznikoff, 2024). For a full list see the right column on this blog.

In 2011 Litteraria Pragensia, Charles University, Prague, published Pierre Joris: Cartographies of the In-between, edited by Peter Cockelbergh, with essays on Joris’ work by, among others, Mohammed Bennis, Charles Bernstein, Nicole Brossard, Clayton Eshleman, Allen Fisher, Christine Hume, Robert Kelly, Abdelwahab Meddeb, Jennifer Moxley, Jean Portante, Carrie Noland, Alice Notley, Marjorie Perloff & Nicole Peyrafitte (2011).

Other work includes the CD Routes, not Roots (with Munir Beken, oud; Mike Bisio, bass; Ben Chadabe, percussion; Mitch Elrod, guitar; Ta’wil Productions). With Jerome Rothenberg he edited Poems for the Millennium, vol. 1 & 2: The University of California Book of Modern & Postmodern Poetry, and with Habib. Tengour Poems for the Millennium, vol. 3: The University of California Book of North African Literature.

When not on the road, he lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, with his wife, multimedia praticienne Nicole Peyrafitte. A volume of their collaborative work, to be called Domopoetics, will be published in the near future.