The German Prize for Nature Writing honours authors who make reference to 'nature' in their literary work. The prize, which is awarded once a year, builds on the tradition of nature writing, which is particularly widespread in the USA and Great Britain, in which authors deal with the perception of nature, with the practical handling of the natural world, with reflections on the relationship between nature and culture and with the history of human appropriation of nature. Both essayistic as well as lyrical and epic writing will be considered across genres.
The thematisation of 'nature' includes the dialectic of external and internal nature as well as the dissolution of the boundaries between culture and nature or the issues surrounding the preservation of natural phenomena and natural events. Nature Writing does not speak of 'nature as such', but of nature as perceived, experienced and explored by humans.
The call for entries
The award supports German-speaking authors or authors writing in German who have published at least one independent literary work or a text in a literary magazine (no self-publishing or books on demand; in the case of theatre plays, radio plays, etc., proof of premiere). The submitted texts should be previously unpublished (until the end of the year of the competition).
The following materials must be enclosed with the submission:
- either: a prose text (story, beginning of a novel) of 30-50 standard pages
or: 10 poems
or: an essay of at least 8 standard pages
- an exposé of max. one page
- a bio-bibliography of the author
Submissions should be sent in digital form to dpnw \[at] matthes-seitz-berlin \[dot] de. The deadline for submissions is 10 March 2024.
The German Prize for Nature Writing 2024 is endowed with €10,000. The award ceremony will take place as part of the ilb | international literature festival berlin on 11 September 2024 in Berlin. Claudia Roth, Minister of State for Culture and the Media, will give the welcoming address.
The German Environment Agency and the Art and Nature Foundation in Bad Heilbrunn in Bavaria are contributing to the prize money. In addition, the Art and Nature Foundation is inviting the prize-winner to spend six weeks writing on its premises in the middle of its extensive natural grounds in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps. The Art and Nature Foundation will also award two scholarships for participation in its prominent Nature Writing Seminar from 19 to 22 November 2024.
The jury
This year's jury consists of the journalist and author Petra Ahne, Jean-Marie Dhur, co-owner of the Kreuzberg bookshop Zabriskie, the literary and cultural scholar Steffen Richter, the French writer and translator Cécile Wajsbrot and the writer and literary scholar Florian Werner.
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