There hasn’t been much going on on the culture pages of “Spiegel” in the last few weeks. But one department is currently receiving unexpected attention: literature. The “Spiegel” has recently awarded a literary prize, the “Spiegel Book Prize”, which will be presented on November 20th in the news magazine’s home on Hamburg’s Ericusspitze.
German and international
A seven-person jury from the “Spiegel” cultural editorial team and the literary business had already put together a longlist of twenty titles at the beginning of October. These books will now be presented in short reviews in November, counting down from number 20. Which also means: Whoever is there is eliminated, only the last three titles remain secret and form the shortlist for the award day, so to speak.
Why the “Spiegel” is now awarding a book prize was explained in an in-house note: There is supposedly a lack of a literary prize in Germany that honors both German-language and international literature and thus also the art of translation. Which is why, for example, Rachel Kushner’s novel “Lake of Creation” is on the 20 list, as is Dorothee Elmiger’s “The Dutch Women,” Benjamin Wood’s “The Crab Fisherman” and Feridun Zaimoglu’s “Son Without a Father.”
But is it actually true that only German-language literature is priced in Germany? The HKW Literature Prize, for example, honors both a novel and a translation, and the Leipzig Book Fair Prize also has a prize for translations alone. The “Spiegel” list therefore has something colorful about it, something that can hardly be weighed against each other, and the price isn’t even worth it. But whatever.
Because one could think that in times in which literature does not necessarily enjoy the greatest attention, apart from the genre of romance, which is rather distant from literature, one could think that the “Spiegel”, which has not yet been particularly fond of literature, believes in literature and its power and social relevance and importance in such times, even beyond click numbers and algorithms.
But maybe it’s just a trial balloon on its own behalf, a different canon based on the eternal 100 best books or 50 most important novels of all time, etc. The future, as always, will show, let’s say: the year 2032.