Hotlist

The Hotlist is a literary prize that has been awarded annually since 2009 . An independent publisher from Germany , Austria or Switzerland will be awarded the Hotlist Prize for the best German-language book of the year that was published by one of the participating independent publishers. In contrast to other literary prizes such as the German Book Prize, there are hardly any formal restrictions on author or literary genre , so that novels , volumes of poetry , graphic novels , essays , narrative non-fiction books or anthologies from German-speaking countries as well as translated works from other languages ​​can compete against each other . The award-winning publisher receives 5,000 euros . With the Melusine Huss Prize (endowed with 4,000 euros), a second award has been given to a publisher on the hotlist since 2011. The award ceremony takes place every autumn as part of the Frankfurt Book Fair . A non-profit association takes care of the organization .

history

First award ceremony and criticism

The hotlist price was launched at short notice in 2009 after the announcement of the longlist for the German Book Prize . At the suggestion of the Munich publishing house Blumenbar , 20 German-language independent publishers who were not represented with titles on the longlist got together. They presented a list of 20 books from their programs selected by a jury chaired by Hubert Winkels (according to Winkels a “shadow cabinet of around twenty other very remarkable and award-worthy novels”), which was touted as an alternative to the German Book Prize. According to the publisher Anya Schutzbach ( weissbooks.w ), the list was originally intended as a list of recommendations to document the diversity on the book market. In addition to Blumenbar, there were the Friedenauer Presse , kookbooks , Liebeskind Verlag , Lilienfeld Verlag, mairisch , Matthes & Seitz , Ventil Verlag , Verbrecher Verlag , Voland & Quist and weissbooks.w from Germany, and Edition Korrespondenzen, Luftschacht Verlag from Austria , Milena Verlag and orange-press and, from Switzerland, Bilgerverlag , Realtime Verlag , Folio Verlag , Urs Engeler Editor and Salis Verlag are the joint founding members of the Hotlist. The winner from the nominated novels was selected on the basis of an internet vote on the Friday website , in which around 10,000 readers took part. The Austrian author Alexander Schimmelbusch prevailed as the first prize winner with his novel Blut im Wasser (3725 votes), which was published by Blumenbar Verlag , followed by Uljana Wolf's volume of poems Falsche Freunde (kookbooks, 2489 votes) and Michael Wein's novel Delfinarium (Bavarian, 1184 votes) . Schimmelbusch was honored on October 16, 2009 during an award ceremony moderated by literary critic Denis Scheck in the hall of the Frankfurter Kunstverein during the book fair. The prize money of 5000 euros was donated by the Mayersche bookstore .

The first award show met with mixed criticism. While the idea of ​​an independent book award met with a positive response, the organization behind the creation of the first hotlist was largely rated negatively. Critics complained that the selection was not representative and arbitrary, and in some cases it was perceived as disrespect to other publishers who were not represented. Among other things, the initiators had also failed to inform the Kurt Wolff Foundation about the new prize, which has been offering its own prize for independent publishers since 2001. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the taz complained about the method of online voting. “This price is still experimenting. What exactly it should stand for is not yet clear. And audience awards are always dubious anyway. But experiments are always good, ”says taz author Dirk Knipphals.

Restructuring of the price

Winner of the year 2011: Nino Harati vili for the novel My gentle twin

One year after the first award ceremony, the Hotlist Prize was advertised publicly for the first time, with Mayersche Buchhandlung again offering the endowment of 5000 euros. At the same time, observers noticed that an unusually large number of independent publishers were represented on the longlist of the German Book Prize in 2010 (including titles from Klöpfer & Meyer Verlag , Verbrecher Verlag and Literaturverlag Droschl ), but this was attributed to the composition of the jury, among other things. In the run-up to this, the non-profit association Hotlist , based in Düsseldorf, was founded in 2010 , with the help of which “a neutral finding of the best book from the programs of German-speaking independent publishers and the continued effect of the hotlist idea should be guaranteed”. An independent board of trustees for the book prize was also created, made up of experts from all areas of the literary business in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The board of trustees must agree to all formalities for the creation, implementation and determination of the winners of the hotlist and should thereby guarantee the quality of the award ceremony. It currently has ten members, including the former jury members Traudl Bünger , author, critic and program planner for Lit.Cologne , and Monika Schärer , Swiss television and radio presenter. A support association was also founded. After the second award of the newly restructured prize to Ulrike Almut Sandig's book of stories Flamingos , the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung saw the establishment of the hotlist, which was also “an invitation” to “make discoveries”. The number of submissions rose from 110 to 145 titles in 2012 after the first public tender in 2010. The hotlisted novels Juja (2010) by Nino Harati wili , Vorabend (2011) by Peter Kurzck and Heimlich, heimlich mich forget by Angelika Meier were also included in the long list of the German Book Prize in the same year.

In 2011 , a second hotlist price was set up in memory of the Frankfurt bookseller Melusine Huss (actually Hussendörfer , 1920–1989), a former member of the Board of Trustees for the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade . The Melusine Huss Prize was created through the donation of a print voucher from the Freiburger Graphische Betriebe (fgb) endowed with 4,000 euros. It is awarded to a publisher on the hotlist every year through a vote among the booksellers.

Voting modalities

After the first election in 2009 consisted of a pure internet vote, the current voting procedure consists of a public vote and several jury elections. Independent publishers from Germany, Austria or Switzerland may each submit a title suggestion. For the 2014 edition, these had to be published in German between September 1, 2013 and September 1, 2014 at the latest, and submitted by mid-June.

In contrast to other literary prizes, there are hardly any formal restrictions on the author or literary genre. Poetry, prose, essays and narrative non-fiction books by both living and deceased authors who have written in German or have been translated from other languages ​​compete to reflect the diversity. All submissions are published on the hotlist website and sorted by category. In 2012, these were "Poetry", "German-language stories", "German-language novels", "Narrative literature from other languages", "Crime / Thriller", "Graphic Novel", " Essays / Diaries / Reflections ”,“ Narrative Non-Fiction ”,“ Politics / Criticism of Time ”,“ Anthologies ”and“ The Special Book ”. As a preliminary jury, the Board of Trustees nominates 30 titles from all submissions, from which the audience selects three titles for the hotlist via an internet vote. Seven more are supplemented by an annually changing jury, consisting of experts from all areas of the literary industry in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The jury will select the winner from these ten titles, who will be awarded a prize worth 5,000 euros at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Since 2010, a title has always been awarded by the previous jury.

Award winners

Hotlist price

Year / suggestions	Award winners	Hotlist (without winners)	jury
2009 (20)	Alexander Schimmelbusch Blood in the Water (Blumenbar Verlag)	Hans Adler : Das Städtchen (Lilienfeld Verlag) Barbara Bongartz : Perlensamt (weissbooks) Michel Butor : The timetable (Matthes & Seitz Berlin) Gion Mathias Cavelty : The Andouillette (realtime publisher) Leonid Dobycin : Die Stadt N. (Friedenauer Presse) Daniel Goetsch : Heart from Sand (Bilger Verlag) Germar Grimsen : Almatastr (Verbrecher Verlag) Jan Kossdorf : Sunnyboys (Milena Verlag) Margret Kreidl Folding a swallow (Edition Korrespondenzen) Martin Kubaczek : Sorge. Ein Traum (Folio Verlag) Jan Off : Unzucht (Ventil Verlag) David Peace : Tokyo in the year zero (Liebeskind) Joel Rosenman : John Roberts and Robert Pilpel: Making Woodstook. (Orange Press) Ulrich Schlotmann : The joys of the hunt (Urs Engler) Jochen Schmidt : Schmidt reads Proust (Verlag Voland & Quist) Michael Weins : Delfinarium (mairisch Verlag) Chantal Wicki: Gleissen (Salis Verlag) Benjamin Tienti: Bird of prey (Luftschacht) Uljana Wolf : false friends (Kookbooks)	None (internet vote)
2010 (110)	Ulrike Almut Sandig Flamingos * (Schöffling)	Title of the preliminary jury: Jean-Pierre Abraham : The lighthouse (young and young) Franz Hammerbacher : Bravo Hotel (Edition Korrespondenzen) Iris Hanika : The real thing (Droschl literature publisher) Ulrich Holbein : Please turn the page! (Ivory) Michel Matveev : The Hurried (Weidle) Carl Van Vechten : Parties (Walde + Graf) Thomas Willmann : Das sinstere Tal (Liebeskind) Internet election winner: Dirk Bernemann : Vogelstimmen (Ubooks Verlag) Franz Dinda : Ein BilderReimbuch über Liebe ( weissbooks.w) Thomas Fritz : Blick und Beute (Merlin) Markus Grimm : Fleckies Reise (Lokomotion) Dietlinde Hachmann: Mein Wunscherbe (Acabus) Nino Haratiwili : Juja (Verbrecher Verlag) Axel Westerwelle: Lost in history (Hamburger Verlag)	Traudl Bünger (jury chairwoman, Lit.Cologne , Cologne), Christof Hinderer (Osiandersche Buchhandlung, Reutlingen), Thomas Keul ( full text , Vienna), Michael Lemling (Buchhandlung Lehmkuhl, Munich), Thomas Pletzinger (author, Berlin), Monika Schärer ( Swiss Television , Zurich)
2011 (141)	Nino Haramicwili My gentle twin * (Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt)	Title of the preliminary jury: John Ashbery : Ein weltgewandtes Land, Gedichte (luxbooks) Peter Kurzck : Vorabend (Stroemfeld Verlag) Joseph Mitchell : McSorley's Wonderful Saloon, New Yorker histories (diaphanes) Lee Rourke : Der Kanal (mairisch Verlag) Monique Schwitter : Goldfischgedächtnis, Stories (Literaturverlag Droschl) Steven Uhly : Adams Fuge (Secession Verlag) Internet election winner: Akos Doma : Die Allgemeine Tauglichkeit (Rotbuch Verlag) Naomi Schenck / Ulrich Rüdenauer : Archive of discarded possibilities, images and texts (Belleville Verlag) Erich Mühsam : Diaries, Volume 1 (Verbrecher Verlag)	Michael Angele ( der Freitag , Berlin), Klaus Bittner (Buchhandlung Bittner, Cologne), Maren Keller ( KulturSpiegel , Hamburg), Jan Valk (Adler & Söhne / literary magazine language-bound , Berlin), Andreas Wang (non-fiction best -list from NDR and Süddeutscher Zeitung , Hamburg ), Ursula Zangger (Orell Füssli am Bellevue, Zurich), Peter Zimmermann ( ORF , Vienna)
2012 (145)	Tor Ulven darkness at the end of the tunnel * (Literaturverlag Droschl)	Title of the preliminary jury: Peter Gizzi: totsein ist gut in amerika (luxbooks) Helon Habila : Öl auf Wasser (Verlag Das Wunderhorn) Angelika Meier : Heimlich, secretly forget me (Diaphanes) Lukas Meschik : Luzidin or Die Stille (Jung und Jung Verlag) Robert Louis Stevenson : The Pirate and the Pharmacist. An instructive story (Peter Hammer Verlag) Jeffrey Yang: An aquarium (Berenberg Verlag) Internet election winner: Tamta Melaschwili: Counting (Unionsverlag) Michèle Roten : How to be a woman. Log of a mess. (Real time publisher) Miklós Vajda: Mother image in an American setting (Braumüller Verlag)	Claudia Cosmo (freelance journalist, Cologne), Peter Kolling (Proust bookstore, Essen), Beat Mazenauer (literary critic and publicist, Lucerne), Wiebke Porombka (literary critic and publicist, Berlin), Daniela Strigl (literary critic and publicist, Vienna), Guido Ullmann ( Dussmann, das KulturKaufhaus , Berlin), Norbert Wehr (editor of the literary magazine Schreibheft , Essen)
2013 (141)	Vsevolod Petrow The Manon Lescaut von Turdej * (Weidle)	Title of the preliminary jury: Julia Deck : Viviane Élisabeth Fauville (Wagenbach) Patrick Deville : Äquatoria (Bilger Verlag) Amy Hempel : The harvest (luxbooks) Saskia Hennig von Lange : Everything that is outside (Jung und Jung Verlag) Philip Hoare : Leviathan or The whale (mare) Abbas Khider : Letter to the Aubergine Republic (Edition Nautilus) Internet election winner: Luiz Ruffato : There were many horses (Association A) Ryū Murakami : Das Casting (Septime Verlag) Stevan Paul : Schlaraffenland (mairisch Verlag)	Oliver Hartlieb (Hartlieb's books, Vienna), Gernot Krämer (sense and form, translator, literary critic, Berlin), Andrea Ritter ( Stern , Hamburg), Ulrike Almut Sandig (author, Berlin), Christoph Schröder (literary critic and publicist, Frankfurt am Main ), Beatrice Stoll (former director of the Literaturhaus Zürich ), Volker Stuhldreher (Schweitzer Fachinformationen, Kamloth & Schweitzer, Bremen)
2014 (143)	Lars Müller Publishers ; Andri Pol (photographer), Peter Stamm , Rolf-Dieter Heuer (texts) People at CERN: European Organization for Nuclear Research * (Müller)	Title of the preliminary jury: Lydia Davis : Can't and won't (Droschl) James Hanley : Fearon (Arco Verlag) Mawil : Kinderland (Reprodukt) Carl Nixon : Settlers Creek (Weidle Verlag) Günter Saalmann : Fiedlerin auf dem Dach (Eichenspinner Verlag) Sarah Schmidt : A ton for Mrs. Scholz (Verbrecher Verlag) Internet election winner: Emrah Serbes : Young losers (Binooki) Emma Donoghue : Tender Landing (Krug & Schadenberg) Lili Grün : Girls heaven! (Aviva Verlag)	Gerrit Bartels ( Der Tagesspiegel , Berlin), Maik Bozza (Stefan George Archive, Stuttgart), Jan Kuhlbrodt (Author, Leipzig), Katharina Richter (Kronengasse bookstore, Aarau), Veit Schmidt (Löwenherz bookstore, Vienna), Katja Thimm ( Der Spiegel , Hamburg), Leander Wattig (blogger, leanderwattig.de, Berlin)
2015 (171)	Monika Rinck Risk and Idiocy. Policies * ( Kookbooks )	Title of the preliminary jury: Kai Weyand : Applause for Bronikowski (Wallstein Verlag) Sifiso Mzobe : Young blood (Petter Hammer Verlag) Dinaw Mengestu : Our names (no and buts) Arno Camenisch : Die Kur (Engeler Verlag) Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki : Tumor linguae (Edition Korrespondenzen) Merle Kröger : Havarie (Argument) Internet election winner: Anke Stelling : Bodentiefe Fenster (Verbrecher Verlag) Rauni Magga Lukkari & Inger-Mari Aikio-Arianaick : Erbmütter - Welttöchter (Eichenspinner Verlag) Heike Geißler : Seasonal work (Spector books)	Alexandra von Arx, Osama Ishneiwer, Harald Klauhs, Michael Sacher, Dorothea von Törne
2016 (158)	Debora Vogel The Geometry of Surrender ( Arco Verlag )
2017 (184)	Brigitta Falkner : Strategies for finding a host ( Matthes & Seitz Berlin )	Lutz Taufer : Across borders: From the underground to the favela Quentin Mouron : Notre-Dame-de-la-Merci Maarten Inghels , F. Starik : The lonely burial, stories and poems about forgotten lives Ulrike Anna Bleier : Swimmer's pool Brigitta Falkner : Strategies of Host finding Guy Delisle : Geisel, reportage comic Maren Kames : Half pigeon half peacock Arno Tauriinen : Gold- rimmed darkness Anna Baar : As if they were walking in a dream Miroslav Krleža : The flags
2018 (161)	Marcel Schwob : Manapouri ( Ivory Verlag )	Ömür Iklim Demir : The book of dispensable thoughts (binooki Verlag) Tarek Leitner and Peter Coeln : Hilde & Gretl (Brandstätter Verlag) Judith Kerr : Creatures (Edition Memoria) Reso Tscheischwili : Die Himmelblauen Berge (Edition Monhardt) Arthur Koestler : Sonnenfinsternis (Elsinor Verlag) Verena Stauffer : Orchis (Kremayr & Scheriau) Eugen Gomringer : poema (Nimbus) Ruska Jorjoliani : You're in the same air with me (Rotpunktverlag) Bettina Wilpert : nothing that happens to us (Verbrecher Verlag)	Mariann Bühler (literary mediator, managing director of sofa readings), Basel Simon Deckert (author, cultural mediator), St. Gallen Anna Rahm (bookstore with books on the go), Ravensburg Jan Wiele (literary editor at FAZ), Frankfurt am Main Anne Zauner (Literaturhaus Wien / Int. Literature Festival Erich Fried Days), Vienna

* = Title of the preliminary jury

Melusine Huss Prize

• 2011: Stroemfeld Verlag for Peter Kurzcks novel Vorabend
• 2012: Peter Hammer Verlag for the ballad The Pirate and the Pharmacist by Robert Louis Stevenson, translated and illustrated by Henning Wagenbreth
• 2013: Edition Nautilus for the novel Letter to the Aubergine Republic by Abbas Khider
• 2014: Aviva Verlag for the book Mädchenhimmel! with poems and stories by Lili Grün
• 2015: Verbrecher Verlag for the novel Bodentiefe Fenster by Anke Stelling
• 2016: Guggolz Verlag for the essay volume Scenes from Scotland by James Leslie Mitchell
• 2017: Association A for the autobiography About Borders: From the Underground to the Favela by Lutz Taufer
• 2018: Verbrecher Verlag for nothing that happens to us by Bettina Wilpert

Web links

Wiktionary: Hotlist  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Official website
• Website for the association's hotlist

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Hotlist 2009 - recommendations of the independents at boersenblatt.net, August 19, 2009 (accessed on August 25, 2012).
2. ^ Hotlist for the German Book Prize 2009 . In: Berliner Zeitung , August 21, 2009, No. 194, p. 25.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Holger Heimann: The lukewarm list . boersenblatt.net, September 9, 2009 (accessed August 25, 2012).
4. ↑ »Pure arbitrariness can have a certain charm« at boersenblatt.net, September 4, 2009 (accessed on August 25, 2012).
5. ↑ The idea at hotlist-online.com (accessed on August 25, 2012).
6. ↑ Hotlist Audience Award of the Independents to Blumenbar author Alexander Schimmelbusch at boersenblatt.net, October 17, 2009 (accessed August 25, 2012).
7. ↑ Klaus Sander: Your 'hotlist' is a farce . boersenblatt.net, September 4, 2009 (accessed August 25, 2012).
8. ↑ Parade without a hit . In: FAZ , October 2, 2009, p. 34.
9. ^ Ariane Breyer: The book pricing . In: taz , September 1, 2009, p. 14.
10. ↑ Dirk Knipphals: The potential of the trade fair as an event . In: taz , October 19, 2009, p. 15.
11. ↑ Holger Heimann: German Book Prize: Money and skill . boersenblatt.net, August 18, 2010; Retrieved August 26, 2012.
12. ↑ ^{a b} The association . Vereinderhotlist.de; Retrieved August 25, 2012.
13. ^ The Board of Trustees . Vereinderhotlist.de; Retrieved August 25, 2012.
14. ↑ Andrea Diener : Pleasant standing still . In: FAZ , October 11, 2010, p. 31.
15. ^ Priestess of the reading cult: On the death of the bookseller Melusine Hussendörfer . In: FAZ , May 30, 1989, p. 35.
16. ^ Obituary notice in the FAZ , May 30, 1989, p. 35.
17. ^ New members in the Peace Prize Foundation Council . In: FAZ , June 1, 1981, p. 27.
18. ↑ Melusine Huss (1920-1989)
19. ↑ The Melusine Huss Prize at hotlist-online.com (accessed on August 25, 2012).
20. ↑ All submissions ( memento of September 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) at hotlist-online.com (accessed on August 25, 2012).