Esther Kinsky and Ann Cotten Awarded the German-Austrian Poetry Prize

Esther Kinsky and Ann Cotten have received the inaugural German-Austrian Poetry Prize 2026. Kinsky was awarded for her poetry collection Home; while Cotten received the honour for her collection Bollards.

An independent panel of judges chose the recipients in a sitting on September 28. In public remarks, Wolfram Weimer, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media of the Federal Republic of Germany stated that the jury had honoured works »that could not be more different and yet share the common trait of poetically and eloquently transcending the boundaries of literary genres. These collections are characterized by a spirit of experimentation, a wealth of ideas, and the great openness that also shaped Ingeborg Bachmann’s works.«

The German-Austrian Poetry Prize was established this year by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of author Ingeborg Bachmann. The jointly initiated prize is awarded to two poets who are based in Germany and Austria respectively. The prize also includes participation in translation workshops in Berlin and Vienna. The project is organized by the Austrian Society for Literature (ÖGfL) and the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin e.V. (LCB), in cooperation with the TOLEDO programme run by Deutscher Übersertzerfonds German.

The prize will be awarded on November 25, 2026, during the opening reception of Buch Wien, with each winner receiving a prize of €15,000.