4 December 2023

Sonja vom Brocke receives the Weiskopf-Wedding Prize of the Akademie der Künste
The prize is awarded for the first time in 2024

The Weiskopf Wedding Prize of the Akademie der Künste, which is being awarded for the first time in 2024, goes to Sonja vom Brocke. The jury was made up of Akademie members Kerstin Hensel, Dagmara Kraus and Monika Rinck. The prize, endowed with € 5,000, will be awarded on 7 July 2024 at the Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz.

The Weiskopf-Wedding Prize of the Literature Section is a newly launched foundation prize of the Akademie der Künste that is the successor to the former Alex Wedding Prize and the F. C. Weiskopf Prize. The prize is awarded for linguistically critical or reflective works or for children’s and young people’s books.

Sonja vom Brocke has been recognised by the jury as a clever, reflective poet who does not allow herself to be led or abruptly tempted by an idea. “As a perfectionist of rhythm, this outstanding figure of the German-speaking poetry landscape has for some two decades now been persistently spinning her overtly feminine verse creations, as they flicker anxiously in their fragility, full of the beauty of words. With the idiosyncratic voice of her poetry,” the jurors concluded in their official statement, “Sonja vom Brocke has attained a lyrical refinement and subtlety that is second to none.”

Short biography of the laureate
Sonja vom Brocke, born 1980 in Hagen, Westphalia, studied philosophy and literature in Cologne, Hamburg and Paris. Today she resides in Berlin and Vienna. Her texts have been published in magazines, anthologies and art publications. The volume Ohne Tiere from 2010 was followed by the book of poems Venice singt in 2015. Düngerkind was published in late 2018, and Mush, her most recent publication, was published in 2020.She takes an interdisciplinary approach to her work, often collaborating with visual artists. Together with the band Period (with Andreas Reihse and Thomas Winkler), she has set some of her poetry to music. Texts by Sonja vom Brocke have been translated into Slovenian, English, Romanian and Dutch.

Publications
Ohne Tiere (2010), Venice singt (2015), Düngerkind (2018), Mush (2020)