Book Prize jury interview Geißler defends reading

Oct 5

Jo Schück introduces all seven Book Prize jurors and interviews spokesperson Cornelia Geißler. She describes disagreements arising from different aesthetic standards, reading experiences and professional backgrounds, while calling the months of exchanges and meetings rewarding. Asked about pessimism toward reading, she argues that this year's books offer a counterpoint and urges promotion of the winning work, shortlist, longlist and other worthwhile books. She says reading enables empathy, questions and discussion about conflicts and history, and identifies urban literature, multilingual influences and German/GDR life stories that extend beyond the GDR years as notable themes. The interview ends before the nominee films.

Interviewed onstage at the October 5 Book Prize ceremony, jury spokesperson Cornelia Geißler says differing aesthetic criteria, reading experience and professional backgrounds led to arguments during the jury's work, which she nevertheless describes as enjoyable and rewarding. She disputes pessimism about reading, urges the audience to publicize both the shortlist and longlist, and describes urban, multilingual and German/GDR-history writing among the field's strengths. Her optimism is an attributed assessment, not evidence about readership trends or a new selection decision.