While Leipzig Bookfair had to be cancelled for the third time due to the pandemic, this time everything was in favour of a return to normal processes concerning our international competition, at least to a certain extent. At the beginning of February, five jurors met at German National Library in Leipzig to critically assess the books, which were arranged in stacks by countries.

For Ozan Akkoyun, Hans Gremmen, Gila Kaplan, Márcia Novais and Sebastian A. Schmitt from Leipzig, who stood in for the Norwegian Aslak Gurholt, it was the first opportunity in a long time to physically meet. For an extra episode of our podcast, we were allowed to look over their shoulders during the selection marathon. With big thanks to Guthrie Thomson (voice) and Steffen Brosig (editing).

The award-winning books 2022 will be released on March 10th and can be viewed for the first time at „It’s a book“ in Leipzig, on March 19th.