Solothurn Literature Prize 2024 for the German author Anne Weber
Published: Thursday, Feb 1st 2024, 08:40
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German author and literary translator Anne Weber has been awarded the Solothurn Literature Prize 2024. The prize honors the 59-year-old's entire oeuvre.
"Anne Weber is being honored for a literary oeuvre of formal and thematic versatility and a love of experimentation that ranges from essays to novels to epics," the jury said in a statement on Thursday. In its statement, the five-member committee, chaired by journalist Franziska Hirsbrunner, pointed out that Weber takes on a new challenge with every book, whether historical material, political doom or a failed love story.
Against this backdrop, Weber's "Annette - ein Heldinnenepos" (2020) is extraordinary. Weber wrote the life story of the French resistance fighter Anne Beaumanoir in unrhymed verse. The title already refers to the form of the epic, which is unusual in modern literature and was reserved exclusively for gods and heroes in antiquity. The classic is Homer's "Odyssey". Weber reinvented the form, dedicated it to a woman and thus created the heroine epic. She was awarded the German Book Prize 2020 for her work.
Her numerous other awards and honors include the 2021 Marbach Schiller Prize and the 2022 Heidelberg Poetry Lectureship. She received the Leipzig Book Fair Prize for her translation of Cécile Wajsbrot's "Nevermore". And just a few days ago, it was announced that she will also receive the Annette Droste von Hülshoff Prize in 2024.
German and French
Weber was born near Frankfurt in 1964 and has lived in Paris for 40 years. She studied French literature and comparative literature there. She translates from German into French and vice versa. She began writing her own works at the end of the 1990s. Initially, she wrote in French and translated it into German. Now she does the reverse.
Anne Weber's companion is Antoine Jaccottet, a son of the Swiss author Phillippe Jaccottet, whose work had the rare honor of being included in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade of the Gallimard publishing house during his lifetime.
Anne Weber will receive the Solothurn Literature Prize on May 12. It is endowed with 15,000 Swiss francs and will be awarded during the Solothurn Literature Days. With this in mind, it can be assumed that Weber will be present for one or other event at the upcoming 46th Solothurn Literature Days (May 10 to 12).
Following a reorganization, the Solothurn Literature Prize has been awarded by the Solothurn Literature Days Association since 2022. Last year's winner was the Swiss author Gertrud Leutenegger.
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