Jury

Born in 1966, Andreas Platthaus has been an editor in the feuilleton of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper since 1997, where he is responsible for literature and literary life. Since 1998, he has published several books, most recently Auf den Palisaden (On the Palisades) in 2020 with diary entries from his time as a fellow at the Thomas Mann House in California and the biography Lyonel Feininger - Porträt eines Lebens (Lyonel Feininger - Portrait of a Life) in 2021. In 2017 he was appointed Chevalier de l'ordre des arts et lettres by the French Republic, and in 2018 he received the Hessian Culture Prize. He lives in Leipzig and Frankfurt on Main.

Born in Dresden in 1960, is a writer and Professor of Verse arts at Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. After studying German in Jena, she fled to West Germany in 1989 and studied philosophy and sociology in Darmstadt. Her first book came out in 1996.

The central theme of her literary work is the German history of violence, both National Socialism and the GDR dictatorship. Since 2005, she has published the Verschwiegene Bibliothek (Secretive Library), a ten-volume edition of authors and texts that were not allowed to be published in the GDR together with Joachim Walther.

Geipel has received several awards for her works, but also for her social commitment, such as the Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande (German Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon) in 2011, the Lessing Prize for Criticism in 2020 and the Marieluise Fleißer Prize in 2021.

Born in Eisenstadt (Austria) in 1937, vocational baccalaureat diploma at the Business Academy in Villach, perennial stays abroad in Spain, Italy, since 1984 author and freelance journalist in Germany (Frankfurt on Main, Lünen, Bonn, Leipzig). Author of stories, essays, fairy tales, poetry, radio plays, features and non-fictional books, amongst others:

• Reserviert für zwei (Reserved for two) - Short stories
• Der Tag wird Legende (The day becomes legend) - Lyric
• Der Teufel und das Paradies - Umbrische Legenden (The Devil and Paradise - Umbrian Legends) - Fairy tales and legends
• Wege aus der Drogensucht (Ways out of drug addiction) - Reports
• Leben lohnt doch (Live's worth living after all) - Exit biographies

The volume of stories Disteln und Ginster (Thistles and Broom) will be published shortly.

Dr Katrin Schumacher is a graduated literary scientist. Since 2009, she is editor of literature at Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR, Central German Broadcasting). She was born in Ostwestfalen-Lippe and has studied in Bamberg, Antwerpen and Hamburg. She taught at several universities and published books and essays - amongst others on David Lynch, Arthur Schnitzler, contemporary literature, theories of the monstrous or photography. Her most recent book "Füchse - ein Protrait" ("A portrait of foxes") was published as part of the natural history series at Matthes&Seitz Berlin. Before becoming an editor at MDR, she was working amongst others as presenter for rbb kulturradio (cultural radio of Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting) and for WDR (West German Broadcasting), NDR (North German Broadcasting) and Deutschlandradio Kultur (German Culture Radio). She is member of several juries of literary awards as well as of the team Buchzeit (Book time) of 3sat public broadcaster.

Jobst Welge was born in Braunschweig in 1969 and has been a professor of Romance literature at the University of Leipzig since 2018. In his research and publications, he focuses in particular on Spanish and Portuguese-language literatures, but as a comparatist he also addresses overarching issues of contemporary literature and novel theory (Genealogical Fictions. Cultural Periphery and Historical Change in the Modern Novel, 2015).

Werner Gustav Schulz (born 1950 in Zwickau) was a member of the German Bundestag from 1990 to 2005 and a member of the European Parliament for Bündnis 90/Grüne (German Green Party) from 2009 to 2014.

Since the 1970s, Schulz has been active in the ecclesiastical peace, ecology and human rights movement. In 1976 he committed himself to the expatriated East German musician Wolf Biermann. Initially only sent from Berlin to Saxony as a contact person for the Neues Forum, he witnessed the big Monday demonstration in Leipzig on 9 October, 1989 and transferred his political commitment to Saxony for the next few years.

From 1990 to 1994, Schulz was spokesman for the Bündnis 90/Grüne group in the German Bundestag and parliamentary secretary of the parliamentary group between 1994 and 1998. Since the elections of the European Parliament in 2009, he has been a member of the Greens/EFA parliamentary group and was a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and a deputy member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) until he left the Parliament in 2014. He was also deputy chairman of the European Parliament's delegation to Russia.

Werner Schulz passed away on 9 November 2022 in Berlin.