Writer Christine Wunnicke has been awarded the Georg Büchner Prize this year, which carries a €50,000 grant. The German Academy for Language and Poetry announced this on Thursday. The Academy honored Wunnicke for “her consistently surprising and competently conceived body of work,” noting that her stories are set in diverse locations such as Hollywood, Nagasaki, and Paris. The justification praised the “astonishing power of this oeuvre, its carefree individuality, and the unwavering work of a quarter-century.” These qualities, the Academy noted, impress readers who become entangled in new, fascinating explorations between fact and fiction with every book. Wunnicke’s “brilliant art” makes the fictional visible within supposedly historical settings, allowing for “a revealing perspective on European science and colonial history, without denying empathy for the characters.” The Academy added that these novels uniquely combine entertainment and demanding reflection, supported by subtle verbal wit and a refusal of self-reference, achieving this “in such a magnificent and discreet manner.” The Georg Büchner Prize, considered the most prestigious literary award in the German-speaking world, is scheduled to be presented in Darmstadt on October 24.
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