Franz-Hessel-Preis or Franz Hessel Prize for Contemporary Literature is a literary prize of France and Germany for French and German authors. The prize was created as a tribute to the writer and translator Franz Hessel.
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This Franco-German prize is conceived and organized by the Villa Gillet in Lyon and the Genshagen Foundation in the Land of Brandenburg (next to Berlin). The award is supported by the German Federal Government for Culture and Media (BKM) and the French Ministry of Culture and Communication.
History
The award was presented for the first time on 10 December 2010 i.Br. of the German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann and France's Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand as patrons as part of the Franco-German Council of Ministers in Freiburg awarded. Each year, two authors, one German, the other French, are rewarded. The award-winning author must have recently published a work, ideally in the year of awarding the prize. The winners are selected by an independent French-German jury.
This literary prize is endowed with €10,000 per author. A translation in German for the French author and in French for the German author is planned in collaboration with the publishing houses concerned.
Winners
2010: Kathrin Röggla for Die Alarmbereiten (S. Fischer) and Maylis de Kerangal for Birth of a Bridge [Naissance d'un pont] (Verticales).
2011: Thomas Melle for Sickster (Rowohlt-Berlin) and Céline Minard for So long, Luise (Denoël).
2012: Andreas Maier for Das Haus (Suhrkamp Verlag) and Éric Vuillard for La bataille d'Occident (Actes Sud).
2013: Jonas Lüscher for Frühling der Barbaren (C.H.Beck) and Frédéric Ciriez for Mélo (Verticales).
2014: Esther Kinsky for Am Fluß (Matthes & Seitz Berlin) and Christine Montalbetti for Nothing but the Waves and Wind [Plus rien que les vagues et le vent] (P.O.L).
2015: Ulrich Peltzer for Das bessere Leben (S. Fischer Verlag) and Michael Ferrier for Mémoires d'outre-mer (Gallimard).