Deniz Utlu Ödül töreninde © Tobias Bohm
The receipient of 2021 edition of the literary prize awarded in the name of Alfred Döblin, German novelist best known for "Berlin Alexanderplatz" since 1979 author Günter Grass granted it, is Berlin based author Deniz Utlu.
Deniz Utlu, Knut Elstermann, Jörg Feßmann, Marie Schmidt ve Sieglinde Geisel ile birlikte 8 Mayıs 2021’deki ödül töreninde. © Tobias Bohm
The Akademie der Künste and Literarische Colloquium give the prize together, selected by an independent jury of three people. This year the prize was 15 thousand Euro and the jury was consisted of Marie Schmidt, Sieglinde Geisel and Knut Elstermann. They said, Deniz Utlu builds up the story of a father-son relationship in layers of memory. In a directly touching and humorous language, he lets us participate in the conflicts, celebrations and everyday life of a family. Utlu opens up a geography of remembrance for German literature that extends from Hanover to far into Turkey, to the Syrian border.
Live stream recording of the ceremony could be watched here. in German.
Deniz Utlu’s novel “Die Ungehaltenen” was translated to Turkish by Tarık Kayakan “Savrulanlar". His second book is in the editing process at Ayrıntı Publishing House. The author will be in Istanbul as a resident artist at Kulturakademie Tarabya between February 1st - May 31st 2022.
