2021 Alfred Döblin Prize is Awarded to Deniz Utlu

The Akademie der Künste and Literarische Colloquium Berlin give the prize together, selected by an independent jury of three people. This year the prize was 15 thousand Euro and the jury was consisted of Marie Schmidt, Sieglinde Geisel and Knut Elstermann. They said, Deniz Utlu builds up the story of a father-son relationship in layers of memory. In a directly touching and humorous language, he lets us participate in the conflicts, celebrations and everyday life of a family. Utlu opens up a geography of remembrance for German literature that extends from Hanover to far into Turkey, to the Syrian border.

^{Deniz Utlu, Knut Elstermann, Jörg Feßmann, Marie Schmidt ve Sieglinde Geisel ile birlikte 8 Mayıs 2021’deki ödül töreninde. © Tobias Bohm}

Recording of the ceremony could be watched here in German.

Deniz Utlu’s novel “Die Ungehaltenen” was translated to Turkish by Tarık Kayakan “Savrulanlar". His second book is in translation process at Ayrıntı Publishing House and planned to be published in November 2021. 

The author will be in Istanbul as a resident artist at Kulturakademie Tarabya between February 1st - May 31st 2022.