The winner of the main prize was, as always, selected by a jury made up of authors of the same genre. This year, the jury members were Anna Ruchat, Isolde Schaad, and Sylviane Dupuis.
From the statement of the independent jury:
“The jury honors the Austrian-Swiss writer Melitta Breznik. In an impressive, powerful body of work, the author interweaves family history, historical matters, and personal memories. With the distinctive and sober style of her language, Melitta Breznik allows the reader to look into human abysses and feel the wounds of history. She asks how the war continues to live on in the souls of the following generation. The constant change of perspective in her work gradually brings to light a gentle strength of the main characters – often women. This strength forms the fabric of the works of Melitta Breznik.”
As the recipient of the main prize, Melitta Breznik selected the winner of the sponsorship prize, the historian Janosch Steuwer, who works in Zurich. In his book “Ein Drittes Reich, wie ich es auffasse. Politik, Gesellschaft und privates Leben in Tagebüchern 1933-1939” (“A Third Reich, as I See It. Politics, Society, and Private Life in Diaries 1933–1939”), published in 2017, Janosch Steuwer examined, on the basis of 140 previously unpublished diaries, how contemporaries described their relationship to the Nazi regime, but also changes in their position within the social fabric. The author uses private records as “mines of the unconscious”.
The cultural fund of ProLitteris congratulates the prizewinners. This year, we have to forgo a celebration for the award ceremony. The ProLitteris Prize is usually awarded following the annual general meeting at the end of June.