Selection 2023

For this year’s Treffen junger Autor*innen, 246 young writers from 15 federal states applied. A big thank you goes to all the authors who have impressed and touched us with their poems, stories and texts.

Now the jury has made its selection and chosen 20 winners from 10 federal states who will be invited to the Haus der Berliner Festspiele from 16 to 20 November 2023.

We thank the jury for their work and congratulate the authors of this year’s Treffen junger Autor*innen:

Malak Jayeola Aderounmu
19 years, Ober-Ramstadt (Hesse)
Selected with the texts:
“fragmente einer familiengeschichte”
“fragmente einer familiengeschichte zwei”

Emilie Bagger
18 years, Hamburg
Selected with the text:
“Du stehst über ihnen”

Lilli Biller
18 years, Berlin
Selected with the texts:
“meine oma ist am feministischen kampftag gestorben.”
Extracts from „Als sie das Frieren lernten“

Tjorven Druck
19 years, Linter (Hesse)
Selected with the text:
Ausschnitte aus den Kleinigkeiten

Jovana Eleni Engel
17 years, Kranichfeld (Thuringia)
Selected with:
Selected with two pieces without titels.

Katharina Heinrichs
17 years, Freiburg (Baden-Wuerttemberg)
Selected with the texts:
“Fast wie Giverny (Monets Garten) ”
“Leslie” (Arbeitstitel)
“Snippets”

Friederike Junge
10 years, Kassel (Hesse)
Selected with the text:
“So sind Freunde nicht, sie sind anders”

David Kienzler
20 years, Mainz-Kastel (Hesse)
Selected with the texts:
“Schultern”
“eskalationsstufen acht // eskalationsstufen neun // eskalationsstufen zehn //”
“Chemiedreieck”

Laura Franziska Klemm
19 years, Tübingen (Baden-Wuerttemberg)
Selected with the texts:
“Halteknopf, rot”
“Erhebliche Verluste (eine Übungssache) ”
“An meine Stadt”
“Geisterstunde”

Hannah Klitzke
20 years, Stendal (Saxony-Anhalt)
Selected with:
“Gedichte in Borna”

Marvin Krause
21 years, Kaufbeuren (Bavaria)
Selected with the texts:
“Fangen wir mit einem Apfel an. ”
“Ich wette, … ”
“476 Tage”

Helena Lange
16 years, Tharandt (Saxony)
Selected with the texts:
“Nazikaff”
“Metamorphe Baumwolle”

Lilli Nawar
21 years, Konstanz (Baden-Wuerttemberg)
Selected with the text:
“und der kaffeeweißer war leer”

Zoey Ponto
14 years, Seedorf (Baden-Wuerttemberg)
Selected with the text:
“Der letzte Sonnenstrahl”

Alexandra Isabel Reis
21 years, Gießen (Hesse)
Selected with the text:
“Puppy Whore Fortune Planet”

Carolin Chantal Schaefer
21 years, Hildesheim (Lower Saxony)
Selected with:
Auszüge aus “ETWAS ETWAS”

Lotti Spieler
19 years, Berlin
Selected with the texts:
“ich bin das gar nicht”
“to scared too piss”

Konstantin Stawenow
19 years, Andisleben (Thuringia)
Selected with:
Gedichte / Auszüge aus Trost Land

Valerie Zichy
20 Jahre, Wien
Selected with the text:
“etwas zum festhalten vielleicht”

Janka Zündorf
21 Jahre, Bamberg (Bavaria)
Selected with:
“Nachtgedichte”
 

The invited authors between the ages of 11 and 22 show an impressive variance in their forms of language: they write prose or prose miniatures and poetry, including long poems and poetry 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. Many open forms were also submitted: fragments, lyrical collages, notations and aphorisms or virtuoso word art, which is also reflected in the graphic design of the texts. Classical literary forms were often taken as a basis and contrasted with breaks, modern elements and contemporary themes. 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 such as 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.
 

In addition, 20 other applicants will be awarded prizes of book tokens for their interesting and promising texts.

Congratulations to:

Elif Aktürk, 15 years, Hochheim am Main (Hesse)

Samira Bäger, 17 years, Grabow (Saxony-Anhalt)

Marie Berulava, 17 years, Bremen

Milena Blanke, 14 years, Immenhausen (Hesse)

Elinor Marie Greyer, 17 years, Cuxhaven (Lower Saxony)

Lena Hesse, 11 years, Wettin-Löbejün (Saxony-Anhalt)

Lina Höfner, 15 years, Tangstedt (Schleswig-Holstein)

Sofia Ilieva, 11 years, Berlin

Ida Lotte Klemme, 9 years, Kassel (Hesse)

Charlotte Koerschulte, 12 years, Emlichheim (Lower Saxony)

Esma Medina Korkmaz, 10 years, Essen (North Rhine-Westphalia)

Marja Krueger, 11 years, Bielefeld (North Rhine-Westphalia)

Tia Kumar, 13 years, Frankfurt am Main (Hesse)

Helena Mair, 13 years, Sachsenkam (Bavaria)

Lisa-Marie Preuss, 19 years, Oestrich-Winkel (Hesse)

Benjamin Kian Schrade, 14 years, Halle/Saale (Saxony-Anhalt)

Annabelle Schröder, 13 years, Hamburg

Merle Sommer, 15 years, Groß Nordende (Schleswig-Holstein)

Salome Stuck, 18 years, Gochsheim (Baden-Wuerttemberg)

Yuanxin Lisa Zhang, 16 years, Hamburg