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Adelbert von Chamisso Prize 2017 for Abbas Khider

Writer Abbas Khider receives the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize worth 15,000 euros. The two Promotional Prizes worth 7,000 euros each go to the authors Barbi Marković and Senthuran Varatharajah.

Robert Bosch Stiftung | January 2017
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Yves Noir

The Robert Bosch Stiftung awards the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize to honor outstanding German-language authors whose work is shaped by a change of culture. This year’s Main Prize goes to the author Abbas Khider who was born in Iraq. The two Promotional Prize winners are Serbian Barbi Marković and Senthuran Varatharajah who was born in Sri Lanka.
 

Main Prize Winner Abbas Khider

Abbas Khider receives the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize for his complete works to date. In a both drastic, tragic, and comic way, he writes about identity crises and the struggle of integration for today’s refugees. He has published poems in Arabic and German. In 2008, his first novel "Der falsche Inder" was released, for which he received the Adelbert von Chamisso Promotional Prize in 2010.

[DE Copy] Abbas Khider
Yves Noir

Abbas Khider was born in 1973 in Baghdad, Iraq. At 19, he was arrested for his political activities and spent two years in prison. After his release, he fled from Iraq in 1996 and spent time in various countries as an "illegal" refugee. Since 2000, Khider has lived in Germany, studied philosophy and literature in Munich and Potsdam. Khider lives and works in Berlin.

    Promotional Prize Winner Barbi Marković

    Barbi Marković receives the Adelbert von Chamisso Promotional Prize for her urban novel "Superheldinnen", written partially in German and Serbian. She tells the story of three women who want to get away from their past as migrants and hold their ground in their new environment.

    Barbi Marković
    Yves Noir

    Barbi Marković was born in 1980 in Belgrade (formerly Yugoslavia, today Serbia). She studied German studies in Belgrade and Vienna and worked as an editor. She has lived in Vienna since 2006.

      Promotional Prize Winner Senthuran Varatharajah

      Senthuran Varatharajah receives the Adelbert von Chamisso Promotional Prize for his novel "Vor der Zunahme der Zeichen". The novel is written as a Facebook dialog and tells the story of two young refugees from Sri Lanka and Kosovo looking for their own form of identity.

      Senthuran Varatharajah
      Yves Noir

      Senthuran Varatharajah was born in 1984 in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. He came to Germany with his family. He studied philosophy, theology, and cultural studies in Marburg, Berlin, and London.

        The Jury

        The members of the Chamisso Prize 2017 jury are: Wolfgang Herles (literary critic), Michael Krüger (writer and president of the Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste), Klaus-Dieter Lehmann (president of the Goethe-Instituts), Wiebke Porombka (literary critic), Denis Scheck (literary critic), Insa Wilke (literary critic), and Feridun Zaimoglu (writer and Chamisso Prize winner 2005).

        The Adelbert von Chamisso Prize

        The Robert Bosch Stiftung awards the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize to honor outstanding German-language authors whose work is shaped by a change of culture. Furthermore, the award winners are united through their unusual way of using the language in a manner which enriches German literature. In 2017, the Prize is awarded for the 33rd and last time.