Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig jointly awards its "Erich Loest Prize and both Radio Prizes.
Leipzig, 1 September 2021. The "Erich Loest Prize" of Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig will be awarded on 9 September 2021 at Media Campus Villa Ida in Leipzig. The original award date on 24 February could not take place due to the Corona crisis. "24 February would have been Erich Loest's 95th birthday. Unfortunately, an appropriate award ceremony was not possible under the Corona conditions in February," said Stephan Seeger, Managing Director of the Foundation. This year, the "Erich Loest Prize" will be awarded exceptionally with the Foundation's two radio prizes - "Axel Eggebrecht Prize" for German radio feature and "Günter Eich Prize" for German radio play - on the same day. All three prizes are endowed with 10,000 euros each and are awarded every two years.
Erich Loest Prize winner 2021
Ulrike Almut Sandig (born in 1979 and raised in Nauwalde, Saxony) lives in Berlin together with her family. Sandig's works include the volumes of poetry "Zunder" ("Tinder", 2005) and "Streumen" ("Scatter", 2007), "Dickicht" (Thicket, 2011) and "Ich bin ein Feld voller Raps verstecke die Rehe und leuchte wie dreizehn Ölgemälde übereinandergelegt" ("I am a field full of rapeseed hide the deer and shine like thirteen oil paintings on top of each other", 2016) or the short stories "Flamingos" (2010) and "Buch gegen das Verschwinden" ("Book against Disappearance, 2015). For her public musical appearances, she closely cooperates with composers and filmmakers. In 2020, her first novel "Monster wie wir" ("Monsters like us") was published, which is now being particularly honoured with the Erich Loest Prize. The novel addresses the life of children affected by sexual violence and their families during the last few years of East Germany.
Axel Eggebrecht Prize winner 2021
Dr Walter Filz (born in 1959) studied German language, philosophy and art history in Cologne and Zurich, receiving his doctorate in 1988 with a thesis on fairy tale motifs in contemporary German literature. Since 1983, Filz has been working as an author, critic and cultural journalist, primarily for radio. In 2005, he took over the management of the literature and feature editorial team at SWR (South-West German Broadcasting) in Baden-Baden, and after a restructuring in 2017, the radio play and feature editorial team. As an editor, he continues to write and produce features and radio plays. He received several awards, for example the Prix Futura 1991, the Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden 2000 (Radio Play Prize of the War Blind) or the Ernst Schneider Prize 2006. The Axel Eggebrecht Prize recognizes his outstanding contribution in the field of German radio features.
Günter Eich Prize winner 2021
Since 1999, author, director, radio play maker and sound artist Paul Plamper (born in 1972) has been writing and producing radio plays for several German public broadcasters such as WDR, BR, HR, RBB or Deutschlandfunk Kultur. For many years Plamper has been cooperating with actors such as Margarita Broich, Milan Peschel, Volker Spengler and Martin Wuttke in his productions. Paul Plamper has received several awards for his work. In 2002 and 2011 he received the Prix Europa and in 2009 the Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden (Radio Play Prize of the War Blind). In 2014, Paul Plamper was appointed to the Academy of Performing Arts in Frankfurt on the Main, and to the Academy of the Arts Berlin in 2019. Paul Plamper receives the Günter Eich Prize for his life's work in the field of German radio plays.
More information on Media Foundation an the awards can be found at the following websites:
https://www.leipziger-medienstiftung.de/en/medienpreis-en/erich-loest-preis-en/
https://www.leipziger-medienstiftung.de/en/medienpreis-en/axel-eggebrecht-preis-en/
https://www.leipziger-medienstiftung.de/en/medienpreis-en/g%C3%BCnter-eich-preis-en/