Peter Rosegger Prize for Ulrike Haidacher – steiermark.ORF.at

Ulrik Heiderscher was born in 1985, from a nightclub: so far she has succeeded on stage with Antonia Stabbinger as Duo Flüsterzweieck, in 2017 they received the Austrian Cabaret Prize, and in 2018 she started her first solo program.

Literally and humorously compelling

“Her first novel ‘The Party’.” Eine Einkreisung’ (2021) impressively proves that the Graz-born author’s satirical talent also extends well beyond long literary distances. The jury’s verdict was persuasive, literally and with humor.

The book was written during the strict Covid lockdown. Heiderscher describes a basement party, where a “popular director” pretends to be a feminist, but dismantles himself in the process. “Despite all the crises, it is important not to lose your sense of humor. Culture Minister Christopher Drexler (ÖVP), said in a broadcast on Tuesday, Ulrike Heiderscher shows this in an impressive way and at the same time holds the mirror in front of us in a socially critical way.

Scholarship for Innovative Writing Techniques for Nnebedum

A grant of €5,000 for innovative writing techniques goes to Precious Nnebedum, who has been an integral part of the Graz slam scene for several years. Born in Nigeria in 1999, the writer and instrumentalist came to Austria at the age of eleven. In 2017 and 2018, she was the Austrian under-20 runner-up in the Poetry Slam.

“In her highly-tempoised scripts, which were written and performed in English, Igbo, German and Denglish, she tells of her experience as a young woman of color in Graz and about racism and everyday solidarity,” the jury confirmed. In 2020, she also became one of the leading co-organizers and women of the Black Lives Matter movement in Graz. In 2020, Nnebedum was awarded the Exile Literature Prize and in 2021 the Graz Women’s Prize. Her first volume of poetry is scheduled to appear in the fall.

The Peter Rosegger Prize for Literature, amounting to €10,000, is awarded the Innovative Writing Techniques Scholarship every two years. The Literature Prize has been awarded in a new form since 2012 to honor an outstanding literary debut. The scholarship aims to support young authors in Styria who are engaging with larger literary projects for the first time. Recently, Ferdinand Schmalts (Literature Award) and Sylvia Egger (Scholarship) have both won.