Kleist Prize 2024
The Kleist Prize is an important German literary prize. The Work of producer, writer and playwright Sasha Marianna Salzmann has been awarded in this edition.
Her books are published by Suhrkamp Verlag and in Italy by publishing house Marsilio, that released: "Fuori di sé" (2019, translation by Fabio Cremonesi), finalist novel at the European Strega Prize 2019 and "Nell'uomo tutto deve essere bello" (2022, translation by Fabio Cremonesi).
Her latest book, “Gleichzeit” (2024), is a correspondence with Israeli musician and writer Ofer Waldman concerning the events of 7th October.
Writer Samira El Ouassil – who proposed Salzmann as the winner of the Kleist Prize on last 3rd May – observes: » Salzmann’s writing is that of a simultaneity – multi-layered, complex, oscillating social fields in which unambiguity is forbidden, Salzmann writes themself and us into our heads and hearts, and helps the reader to learn to endure these unbearable ambivalences [...]. Making Salzmann the ideal winner of the Kleist-Preis!«.
The Prize is endowed with 20,000 Euro and is financed by publishing group Holtzbrinck and the Department for Culture and Media of the German Federal Government.
Among the winners of the last editions there are important names of the contemporary German-speaking literary scene such as: Alexander Kluge, Heiner Müller, Herta Müller, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Daniel Kehlmann, Navid Kermani, Christoph Ransmayer, Clemens J. Setz and Esther Kinsky.
