Reading of the Winners

The artists will present their award-winning texts in a joint reading at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.

The young authors are adept at using linguistic means, have mastered the classical repertoire and use it to develop their own fresh, sometimes even punky and brash tone to formulate their themes and concerns. The content ranges from coming-of-age stories, friendship, love, bullying, sexuality and the perception of one's own body to universal themes: the position of women in society, revolutionary forces, observations from the East German provinces, racist tendencies, stories of flight and migration or even violence and suicide.

Stylistically, the artists show an impressive variance in formal language: they write prose or prose miniatures and poetry, including long poems and those in the tradition of song-poems. Drama and performative texts are also represented. What is impressive is the desire to experiment with language and forms, to explore their possibilities and to move between genres. In this way, many open forms have emerged: Fragments, lyrical collages, notations and aphorisms or virtuoso word art, which is reflected in the graphic design of the texts. Classical literary forms were also frequently taken as a basis and contrasted with breaks, modern elements and contemporary themes.