This year the Great Austrian State Prize goes to Clemens J. Setz, the State Prize for European Literature goes to Lídia Jorge.
One of Portugal’s most important literary voices for a long time: Lídia Jorge. IMAGO
Add the Press on Google as your preferred news source.
The author Clemens J. Setz will receive the Grand Austrian State Prize in 2026, the highest artistic award in the republic. It is endowed with 30,000 euros and is awarded on the recommendation of the Arts Senate: Setz “as a poet of the literary avant-garde expands the German-speaking area like no other”. Setz was born in Graz in 1982, his first novel “Sons and Planets” was published by Residenz Verlag in 2007, and with “Love at the Time of the Mahlstädter Child” in 2011, Setz switched to Suhrkamp Publishing and received the main prize at the Leipzig Book Fair for the novel, and later the Kleist Prize. This was followed by highly praised novels such as “Indigo” (2012) and “The Hour Between Woman and Guitar” (2015). In 2021 he received the Büchner Prize and in 2023 the Austrian Book Prize for the novel “Moons before Landing”.
The 79-year-old Portuguese Lídia Jorge received another important literary prize awarded by the Republic: She was chosen by a five-person jury as the new recipient of the Austrian State Prize for European Literature. Born in 1946, she has long been one of Portugal’s most important literary voices. Her most important works include “Erbarmen” (2024) and “The Day of Miracles” (1992). Most recently, “The Hour of the Carnations” was published by Secession. Lídia Jorge will receive the 25,000 euro honor for her entire work; the award ceremony will take place on July 27th on the sidelines of the Salzburg Festival. (ed.)
