The Schiller Memorial Prize is one of the most important literary prizes. Now it has been given to an author in Marbach who should feel right at home in the literary archive there. After all, many of Julia Franck’s writings are already stored there.
Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – The Berlin author Julia Franck was awarded the Schiller Memorial Prize of the State of Baden-Württemberg in Marbach. The 52-year-old understands how “to create her very own poetic space with the game of deception of experience and invention, which at the same time intertwines with political history and the present,” the jury praised the work of the author from Berlin before the award ceremony in the German Literature Archive on Friday. With great narrative dynamics and linguistically creative quality, she deals with controversial topics such as the flight from East Germany, precarious family relationships and the resistance in art and writing.
The prize, worth 25,000 euros, is awarded every three years and is considered an important literary prize in Germany. Previous winners of the Schiller Memorial Prize include Max Frisch, Christa Wolf and Friedrich Dürrenmatt.
Marbach and the literary archive are by no means alien to Franck. A few years ago, the writer sent her previous notes and documents there, including manuscripts of her novels and short stories, essays and translations, letters from companions and correspondence with her publisher.
For her successful novel “Die Mittagsfrau” from 2007, Franck received the German Book Prize in the same year. The work has been translated into 37 languages. In her book “Campfire”, Franck processed the nine months she spent in West Berlin’s Marienfelde emergency camp. When she was a child in the camp, she was beaten up and mocked. Most recently, her autobiographical novel “Worlds Apart” was published.
