Celebrating the Shortlists

The shortlists for the inaugural Ilse Schwepcke Prize were announced on Friday, followed by celebrations at John Sandoe Books on Saturday evening.

The evening began with Prize co-founder Dr Barbara Schwepcke remembering her mother, Ilse, in whose memory the Prize is held. Ilse loved travelling and reading travel writing — so much so that she was founding editor of The Armchair Traveller, an imprint at Barbara’s publishing house, Haus Publishing.

This was followed by presentations on the English and German shortlists: judges Helena Attlee and Arabella Friesen spoke about the English selection, while Barbara and Dr Cordelia Borchardt of S. Fischer Verlag presented the German shortlist.

The judges — Helena Attlee, Arabella Friesen, and Stephanie Yeboah — deliberated over the summer and selected four titles for the English-language shortlist, chosen from a pool of thirty books.

Similarly, the German jury — author Antje Rávik Strubel, bookseller Maria Klöcker, and journalist Martina Wimmer — selected four titles ‘of great linguistic beauty’ from twenty submissions for the German-language shortlist.

The English shortlist is:

• Anima by Kapka Kassabova (Vintage, Penguin)
• One Ukrainian Summer by Viv Groskop (Ithaka Press, Bonnier Books)
• Dust and Pomegranates by Victoria Whitworth (Apollo, Head of Zeus)
• One Woman Walks Europe by Ursula Martin (Honno)

The German shortlist is:

• Bitteres Blau by Maike Albath (Berenberg Verlag)
• Am Rande by Regina Hilber (Theodor Kramer Gesellschaft)
• Nachtzugtage by Millay Hyatt (Friedenaurt Presse)
• Mein Spitzbergen by Birgit Lutz (mareverlag)

The winner will be announced on 17 October and awarded at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Join us in celebrating at the Reading Island for Independent Publishers in Hall 3.1 (C105).