The Uwe Johnson Prize is an annual German literary award. The award is named after the writer
Uwe Johnson
Uwe Johnson (; 20 July 1934 – 22 February 1984) was a German writer, editor, and scholar. Such prominent writers and scholars as Günter Grass and Hans Mayer declared Johnson to be the most significant writer to emerge from East Germany. Duri ...
(1934–1984) and was first awarded in 1994. It is awarded for "outstanding literary works in which there are links to the poetics of Uwe Johnson". Alternating the main prize for a work and the Förderpreis (promotional prize) for the best debut is awarded by the Mecklenburg Literature Society, the Nordkurier (1994–2016), the Berlin law firm Gentz und Partner (since 2012) and the Humanistischer Verband Deutschlands (since 2017). The prize is endowed with €20,000 (Förderpreis: €5,000).
Recipients
Source:
* 1994: ''Spiegelland. Ein deutscher Monolog''
* 1995:
Walter Kempowski
Walter Kempowski (; 29 April 1929 – 5 October 2007) was a German writer. Kempowski was known for his series of novels called ''German Chronicle'' ("Deutsche Chronik") and the monumental ''Echolot'' ("Sonar"), a collage of autobiographical rep ...
for ''Das Echolot''
* 1997: Marcel Beyer for ''Flughunde''
* 1999: for ''Anschlag''
* 2001: Jürgen Becker for ''Aus der Geschichte der Trennungen''
* 2003: Norbert Gstrein for ''Das Handwerk des Tötens''
* 2005: for ''Schattauers Tochter'' (Förderpreis)
* 2006: for ''Späte Reise''
* 2007: for ''Aus dem Sinn'' (Förderpreis)
* 2008:
Uwe Tellkamp
Uwe Tellkamp (; born 28 October 1968) is a German writer and physician. He practised medicine until 2004. Before the fall of communism, he was enlisted in the National People's Army as a tank commander and imprisoned when he refused to break up ...
for ''Der Turm''
* 2009: Thomas Pletzinger for ''Bestattung eines Hundes'' (Förderpreis)
* 2010:
Christa Wolf
Christa Wolf (; Ihlenfeld; 18 March 1929 – 1 December 2011) was a German novelist and essayist. She is considered one of the most important writers to emerge from the former East Germany.
* 2011: Judith Zander for ''Dinge, die wir heute sagten'' (Förderpreis)
* 2012:
Christoph Hein
Christoph Hein (; born 8 April 1944) is a German author and translator.
He grew up in the town Bad Düben near Leipzig. Being a clergyman's son and thus not allowed to attend the Erweiterte Oberschule (EOS) in the GDR, he received secondary educ ...
for ''Weiskerns Nachlass''
* 2013: for ''Frühe Vögel'' (Förderpreis)
* 2014:
Lutz Seiler
Lutz Seiler (born 8 June 1963 in Gera, Thuringia) is a German poet and novelist. Considered one of the most important German poets living today, he is the author of numerous books of poetry, prose, and essays, and gained national attention for h ...
for ''Kruso''
* 2015: Mirna Funk for ''Winternähe'' (Förderpreis)
* 2016: Jan Koneffke for ''Ein Sonntagskind''
* 2017: for ''Nachts ist es leise in Teheran'' (Förderpreis)
* 2018: Ralf Rothmann for ''Der Gott jenes Sommers''
* 2019: Kenah Cusanit for ''Babel'' (Förderpreis)
* 2020: Irina Liebmann for ''Die Große Hamburger Straße''
* 2021: for ''Für immer die Alpen'' (Förderpreis)
* 2022:
Jenny Erpenbeck
Jenny Erpenbeck (; born 12 March 1967) is a German writer and opera director. She won the 2015 ''Independent'' Foreign Fiction Prize for ''The End of Days'' and the 2024 International Booker Prize for ''Kairos''.
Life
Born in East Berlin, Erp ...
for ''Kairos''
* 2023: for ''Aus unseren Feuern'' (Förderpreis)
* 2024: Iris Wolff for ''Lichtungen''