Clemens J. Setz
© Rafaela Pröll
Clemens J. Setz
Clemens J. Setz, born in Graz in 1982, studied mathematics and German language and literature at the University of Graz from 2001 to 2009. Today he lives in Vienna. Clemens J. Setz is the author of novels, short stories, poems and plays. He has received numerous awards for his works.
Clemens J. Setz, born in Graz in 1982, studied mathematics and German language and literature at the University of Graz from 2001 to 2009. Today he lives in Vienna. Clemens J. Setz is the author of novels, short stories, poems and plays. He has received numerous awards for his works.
Awards (selection)
Austrian Book Prize 2023 for Monde for der Landung
German Book Prize 2023 (longlist) for Monde for der Landung
Nominated for the Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2023 for Monde for der Landung
Franz-Nabl-Preis 2023
Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2023 (nomination) for Monde for der Landung
Georg-Büchner-Preis 2021
Kleist-Preis 2020
Jakob-Wassermann-Literaturpreis 2020
Berliner Literaturpreis 2019
Merck...
German Book Prize 2023 (longlist) for Monde for der Landung
Nominated for the Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2023 for Monde for der Landung
Franz-Nabl-Preis 2023
Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2023 (nomination) for Monde for der Landung
Georg-Büchner-Preis 2021
Kleist-Preis 2020
Jakob-Wassermann-Literaturpreis 2020
Berliner Literaturpreis 2019
Merck...
Read more
Austrian Book Prize 2023 for Monde for der Landung
German Book Prize 2023 (longlist) for Monde for der Landung
Nominated for the Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2023 for Monde for der Landung
Franz-Nabl-Preis 2023
Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2023 (nomination) for Monde for der Landung
Georg-Büchner-Preis 2021
Kleist-Preis 2020
Jakob-Wassermann-Literaturpreis 2020
Berliner Literaturpreis 2019
Merck Kakehashi Award 2018 for Indigo (Japan)
Literaturpreis der Steiermark 2017
Wilhelm-Raabe-Preis 2015 for Die Stunde zwischen Frau und Gitarre
Longlisted for the German Book Prize 2015 for Die Stunde zwischen Frau und Gitarre
Literaturpreis des Kulturkreises der deutschen Wirtschaft 2013
Shortlisted for the German Book Prize 2012 for Indigo
Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2011 for Die Liebe zur Zeit des Mahlstädter Kindes
Bremer Literaturpreis 2010 for Die Frequenzen
Shortlisted for the German Book Prize 2009 for Die Frequenzen
Ernst-Willner-Preis at the Ingeborg Bachmann Competition 2008
German Book Prize 2023 (longlist) for Monde for der Landung
Nominated for the Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2023 for Monde for der Landung
Franz-Nabl-Preis 2023
Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2023 (nomination) for Monde for der Landung
Georg-Büchner-Preis 2021
Kleist-Preis 2020
Jakob-Wassermann-Literaturpreis 2020
Berliner Literaturpreis 2019
Merck Kakehashi Award 2018 for Indigo (Japan)
Literaturpreis der Steiermark 2017
Wilhelm-Raabe-Preis 2015 for Die Stunde zwischen Frau und Gitarre
Longlisted for the German Book Prize 2015 for Die Stunde zwischen Frau und Gitarre
Literaturpreis des Kulturkreises der deutschen Wirtschaft 2013
Shortlisted for the German Book Prize 2012 for Indigo
Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2011 for Die Liebe zur Zeit des Mahlstädter Kindes
Bremer Literaturpreis 2010 for Die Frequenzen
Shortlisted for the German Book Prize 2009 for Die Frequenzen
Ernst-Willner-Preis at the Ingeborg Bachmann Competition 2008
Praise
»As evil as Nabokov, as virtuosic as David Foster Wallace.« Welt am Sonntag
»One of the highest hopes of German literature.« Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
»There are few other writers able to create such fantastic interconnections of the organic and the mechanical, the animate and the inanimate.« Jutta Person, Süddeutsche Zeitung
»One of the highest hopes of German literature.« Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
»There are few other writers able to create such fantastic interconnections of the organic and the mechanical, the animate and the inanimate.« Jutta Person, Süddeutsche Zeitung
»As evil as Nabokov, as virtuosic as David Foster Wallace.« Welt am Sonntag
»One of the highest hopes of German literature.« Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
»There are few other writers able to create such fantastic interconnections of the organic and the mechanical, the animate and the inanimate.« Jutta Person, Süddeutsche Zeitung
»One of the highest hopes of German literature.« Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
»There are few other writers able to create such fantastic interconnections of the organic and the mechanical, the animate and the inanimate.« Jutta Person, Süddeutsche Zeitung
PUBLICATIONS
Latest first
Year of Publication: 2025
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2025
Pugfish
What on earth is going on with the pugfish? A second ago he was purple, now he’s red, and soon he’ll be in a balloon floating overhead? Impatient and curious, he keeps on moving: Can you climb up this wall of ivy? You bet you can: »Pugfish climb/Pugfish race/Pugfish laughs in danger’s face!« And when a second pugfish appears, suddenly, he’s no longer alone: »Pugfish Pugfish number two/Pugfish...
Year of Publication: 2024
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2024
Space in Its Own Fur
Clemens Setz repeatedly announced that he would never publish poetry in book form again – only to go ahead and produce this volume. But the work collected in this publication belongs to a very special kind of poetry, because it was originally created in a medium that no longer exists: Twitter. Once a legendary microblogging service, since Elon Musk got his mits on it, Twitter has become a thing...
Year of Publication: 2023
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2023
Moons before the Landing
Worms in the early twenties of the last century. Peter Bender, a former lieutenant pilot in the German Army, makes a name for himself as the founder of a new religious community and with the...
Rights sold to:
Spanish world rights (H&O Editores), Italy (La Nave di Teseo)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Roof Music)
Year of Publication: 2022
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2022
The Triumph of the Clematis in Europe
Life plans are worrisome worlds apart, transitions and nuances threaten to disappear in the public debate. David is dead, as published by the influencer Tim and some journalists, but from the...
Rights sold to:
Chinese simplex rights (One-Way Street Journal)
Year of Publication: 2020
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2020
The Bees and the Invisible
Pure meaning, pure poetry – this idea seems to worry and spur on people throughout the centuries. It is the driving force behind the invention of languages like Esperanto, Volapük or...
Rights sold to:
Spanish world rights (H&O Editores), Korea (Eulyoo), Esperanto world rights (Mondial)
Year of Publication: 2019
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2019
The Comfort of Round Things
An Alsatian soldier in the First World War discovers the constellation of the Great Young Kid in the night sky, but it is so awful that he can’t tell anyone about it. A young man, who has fallen...
Rights sold to:
Russia (Symposium), France (Actes Sud), Italy (La Nave di Teseo), Denmark (Vandkunsten), Japan (Kokusho Kankokai), Poland (Filtry), Greece (Gutenberg), Ukraine (Krapky)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Griot)
Year of Publication: 2018
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2018
Bot
Imagine you’re a famous writer and are asked to give an extensive interview. You’re expected to disclose information about your interests and intellectual preferences, about the premises and...
Rights sold to:
Spanish world rights (H&O Editores)
Year of Publication: 2015
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2015
The Hour Between Woman and Guitar
In a residential home for people with physical and mental disabilities, a young woman – Natalie Reinegger – is employed as a caregiver to Alexander Dorm. The man is confined to a...
Rights sold to:
France (Jacqueline Chambon), Italy (La Nave di Teseo), Bulgaria (Paradox)
Year of Publication: 2015
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2015
Till Eulenspiegel
Every child knows the stories about this most famous of pranksters, the one who bakes owls and monkeys, teaches a donkey how to read and fools the Duke of Anhalt. His sly humour, taking everything literally and intentionally misunderstanding everything, with which he keeps lords and masters at bay, has become proverbial. But it’s not only the powerful that fall victim to his rough pranks:...
Year of Publication: 2015
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2015
Happy as Lead in a Corn Field
There are stories so inconceivable that they cannot be told publicly, explicitly, but can only be recounted. Naturally, by the author himself. Here they are. Forty-five in number, and each of them illustrated by Kai Pfeiffer.
»Some months ago«, writes Clemens Setz, »I found some old stories in a folder that I had written when I was eighteen or nineteen. Leafing through the...
»Some months ago«, writes Clemens Setz, »I found some old stories in a folder that I had written when I was eighteen or nineteen. Leafing through the...
Year of Publication: 2014
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2014
The Ostrich Trumpet
Why did young women in the nineteenth century like to stick sharp needles in their mouths in the dark? What is it that prevents someone from being a great lover? And what do childless parrots do?
The answers to these and many more questions are to be found in Clemens J. Setz’s new collection of poetry, The Ostrich Trumpet. The same can be said of his uncanny and by turns abyssal...
Year of Publication: 2012
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2012
Indigo
In the northern part of Styria, Austria, lies Helianau, a boarding school for children suffering from a mysterious condition known as indigo syndrome. Everyone who comes to close to them is struck...
Rights sold to:
USA (W. W. Norton / Liveright), UK (Serpent's Tail), Chinese simplex rights (CITIC Press / Sight), France (Jacqueline Chambon), Italy (La Nave di Teseo), Netherlands (Leesmagazijn), Denmark (Vandkunsten), Korea (Eulyoo), Japan (Kokusho Kankokai), Croatia (Hena Com), Greece (Gutenberg)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Chinese complex rights (China Times), Czech Republic (Fra), Hungary (Europa), Bulgaria (Funtasy)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Roof Music)
Year of Publication: 2011
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2011
Love in the Times of the Mahlstädter Child
A woman who has herself locked in a cage in her own kitchen; a man who lives all by himself in the innermost part of a distant planet; an aging poet in a crib who becomes the core of the collection...
Rights sold to:
Chinese simplex rights (CITIC Press / Sight), Arabic world rights (Al'Asreya), France (Actes Sud / Jacqueline Chambon), Czech Republic (Fra), Hungary (Europa), Bulgaria (Funtasy), Romania (Univers), Macedonia (Blesok)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Denmark (Vandkunsten)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Griot)
DISCOVER
News
Podcast: Clemens J. Setz, how much truth can literature handle? | Dichtung & Wahrheit #6
Laura de Weck talks to Clemens J. Setz about aliens, synaesthesia, and about what we should be mindful of if we don't want to become Bitcoin millionaires.News
Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2023: Nominations for Setz, Steidele, Amlinger & Nachtwey
Clemens J. Setz, Angela Steidele, Carolin Amlinger and Oliver Nachtwey have been nominated for the Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2023.News