Lettre Ulysses Award
Encyclopedia
The Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage has been given annually since 2003 for the best texts in the genre of literary reportage, which must have been first published during the previous two years. The award was initiated by Lettre International in Berlin
, and is organized by the Foundation Lettre International Award, a joint partnership between Lettre International and the Aventis
Foundation. The Goethe-Institut
also cooperates with the project.
A polyglot jury of experienced writers representing eleven of the major linguistic regions of the world seeks the best international texts in the genre and decides on a shortlist of seven, eventually choosing three winners from among them. The members of the jury are appointed by the organizer. In addition, an advisory committee of distinguished writers lends its moral and intellectual backing to the Lettre Ulysses Award. Members of the committee include Günter Grass
, the German writer and winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature
, the Polish reportage author Ryszard Kapuściński
, the French ethnologist Jean Malaurie
, and the Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksievich.
The Lettre Ulysses Award is the first world prize in the reportage genre.
. The winners of the first, second and third prizes are given cash awards amounting to $50,000, $30,000 and $20,000 USD, respectively. Residencies in Berlin are awarded to the other four finalists.
Each jury member justifies his or her nominations in a written proposal accompanied by extracts of each text. These are, if necessary, translated into English and sent out to each jury member. Following the nominations, the first jury meeting is held. The number of nominees is reduced and a shortlist is drawn up after discussions centering on the criteria: relevance of subject; originality; complexity; credibility and authenticity; structure; language and style; and whatever other elements make a particular work outstanding. The shortlist contains seven texts. These texts are then translated in their entirety, if necessary, and sent to all jury members. The final decisions are made after all candidate texts have been entirely and thoroughly read by each and every jury member.
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, and is organized by the Foundation Lettre International Award, a joint partnership between Lettre International and the Aventis
Aventis
Aventis was a pharmaceutical and lab assay testing company. It was formed in 1999 when Rhône-Poulenc S.A. merged with Hoechst AG. The merged company was based in Strasbourg, France. With its headquarters in Strasbourg, Aventis was the product of the first transnational merger to combine large...
Foundation. The Goethe-Institut
Goethe-Institut
The Goethe-Institut is a non-profit German cultural institution operational worldwide, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and relations. The Goethe-Institut also fosters knowledge about Germany by providing information on German...
also cooperates with the project.
A polyglot jury of experienced writers representing eleven of the major linguistic regions of the world seeks the best international texts in the genre and decides on a shortlist of seven, eventually choosing three winners from among them. The members of the jury are appointed by the organizer. In addition, an advisory committee of distinguished writers lends its moral and intellectual backing to the Lettre Ulysses Award. Members of the committee include Günter Grass
Günter Grass
Günter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize-winning German author, poet, playwright, sculptor and artist.He was born in the Free City of Danzig...
, the German writer and winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
, the Polish reportage author Ryszard Kapuściński
Ryszard Kapuscinski
Ryszard Kapuściński was a Polish journalist and writer whose dispatches in book form brought him a global reputation. Also a photographer and poet, he was born in Pińsknow in Belarusin the Kresy Wschodnie or eastern borderlands of the second Polish Republic, into poverty: he would say later that...
, the French ethnologist Jean Malaurie
Jean Malaurie
Jean Malaurie was born on December 22, 1922 in Mainz . He is a French cultural anthropologist, geographer, physicist and writer, as well as the Director and founder of the Terre Humaine series .- Biography :...
, and the Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksievich.
The Lettre Ulysses Award is the first world prize in the reportage genre.
Award ceremony and prizes
The prize winners are announced at a public award ceremony in Berlin on the Saturday before the opening of the international Frankfurt Book FairFrankfurt Book Fair
The Frankfurt Book Fair is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. As to the number of visitors, the Turin Book Fair attracts about as many visitors, viz. some 300,000....
. The winners of the first, second and third prizes are given cash awards amounting to $50,000, $30,000 and $20,000 USD, respectively. Residencies in Berlin are awarded to the other four finalists.
Mission
The Lettre Ulysses Award aims to:Nomination and selection process
The jury is composed of writers and journalists who work within the reportage genre. Their conference language is English, but they are native speakers drawn from the world’s largest linguistic regions and as such guarantee the broadest possible language base. Each jury member is able to make up to two nominations for the award. Although it is likely that jury members will nominate from their own language group, in practice they can nominate works written in whichever languages they read. The composition of the jury and the languages represented are subject to partial annual change.Each jury member justifies his or her nominations in a written proposal accompanied by extracts of each text. These are, if necessary, translated into English and sent out to each jury member. Following the nominations, the first jury meeting is held. The number of nominees is reduced and a shortlist is drawn up after discussions centering on the criteria: relevance of subject; originality; complexity; credibility and authenticity; structure; language and style; and whatever other elements make a particular work outstanding. The shortlist contains seven texts. These texts are then translated in their entirety, if necessary, and sent to all jury members. The final decisions are made after all candidate texts have been entirely and thoroughly read by each and every jury member.
2003
- 1st prize. Anna PolitkovskayaAnna PolitkovskayaAnna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist, author, and human rights activist known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and then-President of Russia Vladimir Putin...
, Tchétchénie: le déshonneur russe, (Buchet/Chastel, Paris, 2003). - 2nd prize. Nuruddin FarahNuruddin FarahNuruddin Farah is a prominent Somali novelist.-Early years:Born in Baidoa, Somalia, Farah is the son of a merchant father and a poet mother. As a child, he attended school at Kallafo in the Ogaden, and studied English, Arabic, and Amharic. In 1963, three years after Somalia's independence, Farah...
, Yesterday Tomorrow: Voices from the Somali Diaspora, (Continuum International, London, New York, 2000). - 3rd prize. Jiang Hao, Revealing the Secrets of Poachers, (Qunzhong chubansche, Beijing, 2000).
2004
- 1st prize. Chen GuidiChen GuidiChen Guidi is a Chinese writer from Huaiyuan county, Anhui. The book A Survey of the Chinese Peasants which he co-wrote with his wife Wu Chuntao was published in January 2004 but banned by the Communist Party in March of that year. It nevertheless won the 2004 Lettre Ulysses Award...
and Wu Chuntao, Survey of Chinese Peasants, (People’s Literature Publication Company, Beijing 2003). - 2nd prize. Tracy KidderTracy KidderJohn Tracy Kidder is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer of the 1981 nonfiction narrative, The Soul of a New Machine, about the creation of a new computer at Data General Corporation...
, Mountains Beyond Mountains. The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World, (Random House, New York, 2003). - 3rd prize. Daniel Bergner, Soldiers of Light (Allen Lane/Penguin, London, 2004).
2005
- 1st prize. Alexandra FullerAlexandra FullerAlexandra Fuller is an Anglo-African author, who currently lives in the U.S. state of Wyoming.-Biography:Her first book was Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, a memoir of life with her family living all around Africa...
, Scribbling the Cat. Travels with an African Soldier, (Penguin Press, New York, 2004). - 2nd prize. Abdellah Hammoudi, Une saison à la Mecque. Récit de pèlerinage, (Seuil, Paris, 2004) [A Season in Mecca. Account of a Pilgrimage].
- 3rd prize. Riverbend, Baghdad Burning. Girl Blog from Iraq, (The Feminist Press, New York, 2005. Published in the UK by Marion Boyars Publishers, London, 2005).
2006
- 1st prize. Linda Grant, The People on the Street. A Writer’s View of Israel, (Virago Press, London, 2006).
- 2nd prize. Érik OrsennaÉrik OrsennaÉrik Orsenna is the pen-name of Érik Arnoult , a French politician and novelist. After studying philosophy and political science at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris , Orsenna specialized in economics at the London School of Economics...
, Voyage aux pays du coton. Petit précis de mondialisation, (Fayard, Paris, 2006) [Journey to the Lands of Cotton. A Brief Manual of Globalisation]. - 3rd prize. Juanita LeónJuanita LeónJuanita León García is a Colombian journalist, writer and lecturer.She was born in Colombia and graduated from law school at University of the Andes before moving to New York City to do a M.S. from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University...
, País de plomo. Crónicas de guerra, (Aguilar, 2005) [Country of Bullets. War Diaries].
See also
- Reportage
- Creative nonfictionCreative nonfictionCreative nonfiction is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contrasts with other nonfiction, such as technical writing or journalism, which is also rooted in accurate fact, but is not primarily written in service...
- New JournalismNew JournalismNew Journalism was a style of 1960s and 1970s news writing and journalism which used literary techniques deemed unconventional at the time. The term was codified with its current meaning by Tom Wolfe in a 1973 collection of journalism articles he published as The New Journalism, which included...
- Lettre International (Berlin)