Literary award · Germany · since 1979

Alfred Döblin Prize

German literary award. Established 1979 in Germany.

About Alfred Döblin Prize

The Alfred Döblin Prize (German: Alfred-Döblin-Preis) is a German literary award. Named after Alfred Döblin, it was endowed by Günter Grass in 1979. The prize is awarded every two years jointly by the Academy of Arts, Berlin and the Literary Colloquium Berlin for substantial unpublished literary works in progress. The current prize level on offer is 15,000 Euros. It is a requirement of the award that finalists take part in a reading competition: nominees are invited to the Literary Colloquium Berlin where they read out their texts and open them to discussion. Since 2007, selected authors' presentations have been recorded and made available on the German literary portal Literaturport. The prize winner is nominated by the jury directly after the reading; the awards ceremony then takes place traditionally the following day at the Academy of Arts, Berlin.

From the Wikipedia article “Alfred Döblin Prize”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Recent winners

YearWinnerWinning work
2021Deniz Utlu—
2017María Cecilia Barbetta—
2015Natascha Wodin—
2013Saša Stanišić—
2011Jan Peter Bremer—
2009Eugen Ruge—
2007Michael Kumpfmüller—
2005Jan Faktor—
2003Kathrin Groß-Striffler—
2001Heike Geißler—
2001Josef Winkler—
1999Norbert Gstrein—
1997Ingomar von Kieseritzky—

From Wikidata; the list may be incomplete for some years.

Eligibility and entering

Check the official rules of the Alfred Döblin Prize for the current eligibility window, accepted formats, residency or language requirements and any entry fee. For most established prizes the publisher submits on the author's behalf, often with a limit on entries per imprint.

If you are self-published, look for an explicit statement that independently published books are accepted, and budget for entry fees and copies for judges.

Sources & data