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Writer Dana Vowinckel is nominated in the fiction category for “Water in a Ziplock”.

Photo: Reto Klar / Funke Photo Services / IMAGO

This year, a graphic novel was nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize in the fiction category for the first time.

“Comrade Cuckoo” by Anke Feuchtenberger is a fantastic trip to the German East, the jury said on Thursday when the nominations were announced.

In addition, Wolf Haas with “Eigentum”, Inga Machel with “Auf den Gleisen”, Barbi Markovic with “Minihorror” and Dana Vowinckel with “Gewasser im Ziplock” were nominated for the fiction prize.

486 works in the selection

The award will be presented on the first day of the Leipzig Book Fair on March 21st.

It is endowed with a total of 60,000 euros and is awarded in the three categories fiction, non-fiction/essay and translation.

This year, 177 publishers submitted 486 works.

In the non-fiction/essay category, the jury chaired by literary critic Insa Wilke also nominated an audio book for the first time.

“Voices of the Century 1945-2000” collects original recordings from German history.

Also selected were Christina Morina ("A thousand departures. The Germans and their democracy since the 1980s"), Tom Holert ("'ca. 1972' Violence - Environment - Identity - Method"), Jens Beckert ("Sold Future. Why the fight against climate change threatens to fail") and Christina Clemm ("Against misogyny").

In the translation section, Ki-Hyang Lee (“The Curse of the Rabbit”), Klaus Detlef Olof (“18 Kilometers to Ljubljana”), Lisa Palmes (“Bitternis”), Jennie Seitz (“Take My Pain. Stories from the War") and Ron Winkler ("Beginning with San Francisco. Poems") were selected.

Last year, Dinçer Güçyeter's debut novel “Our Germany Fairy Tale” won an award in the fiction category.

The author, who was born in Nettetal (North Rhine-Westphalia) in 1979, tells of the pain, deprivation, loneliness and longings of his parents, who came to Germany from western Turkey as guest workers at the end of the 1960s.

Regina Scheer won in the non-fiction/essay category.

Her book “Bittere Brunnen” deals with the life of Hertha Gordon-Walcher.

cpa/dpa