Durs Grünbein Receives the Erich Loest Prize 2026
News25.11.2025
Durs Grünbein has been awarded the 2026 Erich Loest Prize, worth €10,000, which has been awarded biennially since 2016. This year’s prize coincides with the 100th anniversary of author Erich Loest’s birth.
The jury, chaired by critic Andreas Platthaus, has chosen to honour Grünbein as an author of narrative and essayistic prose that addresses (auto)biographical themes against the backdrop of German history, highlighting the works The Years at the Zoo (2017), For the Dying Calves (2020), and The Comet (2023). In their public remarks, the jury stated: »Grünbein explores the interplay between language, photography, memory, and fiction in relation to the trauma of the destruction of his hometown of Dresden and to the mechanisms of totalitarian rule and the violent history of the 20th century. Grünbein's perspective on his own life story and those other – often marginalised – figures and on the material and psychological traces of the past is never purely historically oriented but also always considers the uncertainties of memory and actively reflects on the political fault lines and conflicts of the present.« Grünbein shows “by way of sensual, unsentimental, and communicative language [...] that freedom and a consciousness of the present are connected to history.«
The award ceremony will take place on 24 February 2026 in Leipzig. Former German President Joachim Gauck will deliver the congratulatory speech.
The jury, chaired by critic Andreas Platthaus, has chosen to honour Grünbein as an author of narrative and essayistic prose that addresses (auto)biographical themes against the backdrop of German history, highlighting the works The Years at the Zoo (2017), For the Dying Calves (2020), and The Comet (2023). In their public remarks, the jury stated: »Grünbein explores the interplay between language, photography, memory, and fiction in relation to the trauma of the destruction of his hometown of Dresden and to the mechanisms of totalitarian rule and the violent history of the 20th century. Grünbein's perspective on his own life story and those other – often marginalised – figures and on the material and psychological traces of the past is never purely historically oriented but also always considers the uncertainties of memory and actively reflects on the political fault lines and conflicts of the present.« Grünbein shows “by way of sensual, unsentimental, and communicative language [...] that freedom and a consciousness of the present are connected to history.«
The award ceremony will take place on 24 February 2026 in Leipzig. Former German President Joachim Gauck will deliver the congratulatory speech.