German Children’s Literature Prize 2008

Julia Lentge

Since its inception in 1956 Germany’s sole state-run prize for literature has been funded and awarded each year by the Federal Ministry for Families, Pensioners, Women and Young People, with the prize going to outstanding works in the area of children’s literature. If we take a quick glance at the aims behind the prize and the way it has evolved, the first thing to be said is that the German Children’s Literature Prize has always kept fully in step with the changing times, remaining constantly alert to the way society’s needs have developed and responding to them accordingly

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New German Poetry

Poetry on the Rise Claudius Niessen introduces us to Germany’s most important and promising new poets.

It’s Buchherbst [Autumn Books] in Germany, and the 8th International Literature Festival is being held in Berlin. While most cultural events are taking place in the elegant, bourgeois ambiance of West Berlin’s Festival House, a small group of younger authors have headed for Clärchen’s Ballhaus in Mitte. When the waiter serves drinks, the floorboards creak, the mirrors on the walls are cracked, and the hall radiates a morbid and lusty fin de siècle charm.


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