The Roswitha Prize (german: Roswitha-Preis) is the oldest

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is als ...

prize for literature that is given solely to women. The Roswitha-Medal has been given almost yearly since 1973 by the city of

Bad Gandersheim Bad Gandersheim (Eastphalian dialect, Eastphalian: ''Ganderssen'') is a town in southern Lower Saxony, Germany, located in the district of Northeim (district), Northeim. , it had a population of 9,492. Bad Gandersheim has many half-timbered hou ...

. In 1998 it received its modern designation along with an endowment of €5,500. It is named for

Roswitha of Gandersheim Hrotsvitha (c. 935–973) was a secular canoness who wrote drama and Christian poetry under the Ottonian dynasty. She was born in Bad Gandersheim to Saxons, Saxon nobles and entered Gandersheim Abbey as a canoness. She is considered the first fem ...

, a 10th-century

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

nun who is considered the first female German playwright and author.

List of Recipients

*1973 Marie-Luise Kaschnitz *1974

Hilde Domin Hilde Domin (27 July 1912 – 22 February 2006) is the pseudonym of Hilde Palm (née Löwenstein), a German lyric poet and writer. She was among the most important German-language poets of her time. Biography Domin was born in 1909 in Cologne as ...

*1975

Ilse Aichinger Ilse Aichinger (1 November 1921 – 11 November 2016) was an Austrian writer known for her accounts of her persecution by the Nazis because of her Jewish ancestry.

*1976 Elisabeth Borchers *1977

Dagmar Nick Dagmar may refer to: People * Dagmar (given name), a feminine Scandinavian and German given name * Berthe Dagmar (1884–1934), French film actress * Dagmar (actress) (1921–2001), main stage name of American actress Virginia Ruth Egnor * Dagma ...

*1978

Elfriede Jelinek Elfriede Jelinek (; born 20 October 1946) is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She is one of the most decorated authors writing in German today and was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature for her "musical flow of voices and counter-vo ...

*1979

Luise Rinser Luise Rinser (30 April 1911 – 17 March 2002) was a German writer, best known for her novels and short stories. Early life and education Luise Rinser was born on 30 April 1911 in Pitzling, a constituent community of Landsberg am Lech, in Upper B ...

*1980

Rose Ausländer Rose Ausländer (born Rosalie Beatrice Scherzer; May 11, 1901 – January 3, 1988) was a Jewish poet writing in German and English. Born in Czernowitz in the Bukovina, she lived through its tumultuous history of belonging to the Austro-Hungarian E ...

*1981

Hilde Spiel Hilde Spiel (19 October 1911 – 30 November 1990) (pseudonyms: Grace Hanshaw and Jean Lenoir) was an Austrian writer and journalist who received numerous awards and honours. Biography Youth in Vienna Hilde Spiel was born in Vienna in October 19 ...

*1982

Friederike Mayröcker Friederike Mayröcker (20 December 1924 – 4 June 2021) was an Austrian writer of poetry and prose, audio plays, children's books and dramatic texts. She experimented with language, and was regarded as an avantgarde poet, and as one of the lea ...

*1983 Sarah Kirsch *1984 Greta Schoon *1985

Irmtraud Morgner Irmtraud Morgner, (22 August 19336 May 1990), was a German writer, best known for works of magical realism concerned predominantly with the role of gender in East German society. Life Irmtraud Morgner was born in 1933 in Chemnitz, the daughter o ...

*1986

Ulla Hahn Ulla Hahn is a German poet and novelist. Partial bibliography Poetry collections * ''Herz über Kopf'' (1981), * ''Spielende'' (1983), * ''Unerhörte Nähe'' (1988), * ''Freudenfeuer'' (1989), * ''Liebesgedichte'' (1993), * ''Epikurs ...

*1987

Irina Korschunow Irina Korschunow (31 December 1925 – 31 December 2013) was a German writer. Her oeuvre comprises short stories, novels theatrical works and film scripts. Born in Stendal, she started her career as a journalist and writer for children's books an ...

*1988

Gerlind Reinshagen Gerlind Reinshagen (4 May 1926 – 9 June 2019) was a German writer. Biography The daughter of Ekkehard and Friedel Technau, she was born in Königsberg and studied pharmacy and art. She wrote children's books, novels, poetry and radio plays bef ...

*1989 Helga M. Novak *1990

Herta Müller Herta Müller (; born 17 August 1953) is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet, essayist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Nițchidorf (german: Nitzkydorf, link=no), Timiș County in Romania, her native language is G ...

*1991 No Award *1992 Helga Königsdorf *1993 Christa Reinig *1994

Monika Maron Monika Maron (born 3 June 1941 in Berlin) is a German author, formerly of the German Democratic Republic. Biography She moved in 1951 from West to East Berlin with her stepfather, Karl Maron, the GDR Minister of the Interior. She studied theatre ...

*1995 Libuse Monikova *1996 Gisela von Wysocki *1997 No Award *1998 Carola Stern *1999 Birgit Vanderbeke *2000

Silvia Bovenschen Silvia Bovenschen (5 March 1946 in Point bei Waakirchen, Upper Bavaria — 25 October 2017 in Berlin) was a German feminist literary critic, author and essayist. History Bovenschen was the daughter of a public limited company director. She grew ...

*2001

Erika Fuchs Erika Fuchs, née Petri (7 December 1906 in Rostock – 22 April 2005 in Munich), was a German translator. She is largely known in Germany due to her translations of American Disney comics, especially Carl Barks' stories about Duckburg and its i ...

*2002 Katja Lange-Müller *2003 Antje Rávic Strubel *2004

Angelika Klüssendorf Angelika Klüssendorf (born 1958) is a German writer. She was born in Ahrensburg and raised in Leipzig, both in the German Democratic Republic (former East Germany). In 1985, she fled to West Germany where she has lived ever since. She has writt ...

*2005

Julia Franck Julia Franck (born 1970, in East Berlin) is a German writer. Life Julia Franck, a twin, is the daughter of the actress Anna Katharina Franck and of the television producer Jürgen Sehmisch. In 1978 the family moved to West Berlin where they s ...

*2006 Ruth Klüger *2007

Felicitas Hoppe Felicitas Hoppe (born 22 December 1960) is a German writer. She received the Georg Büchner Prize in 2012. Biography Early years Felicitas Hoppe was born in Hamelin, Lower Saxony, and grew up there. After her Abitur she studied literature, ...

*2008

Cornelia Funke Cornelia Maria Funke () (born 10 December 1958) is a German author of children's fiction. Born in Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia, she began her career as a social worker before becoming a book illustrator. She began writing novels in the late 19 ...

*2009 No Award *2010

Anna Katharina Hahn Anna Katharina Hahn is a German author. Life and works Anna Katharina Hahn was born in Ruit (Ostfildern), a small town short distance to the south-east of Stuttgart. She attended secondary school in nearby Stuttgart. Hahn won her first li ...

*2011

Olga Martynova Olga Martynova (born in 1962 in Dudinka, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia) is a Russian-German writer. She writes poems in Russian, and prose and essays in German. Olga Martynova grew up in Leningrad where she studied Russian literature and language and ...

*2012

Elke Erb Elke Erb (born 18 February 1938) is a German author-poet based in Berlin. She has also worked as a literary editor and translator. Biography Family provenance and early years Elke Erb was born at Scherbach (today part of Rheinbach) in the hill ...

*2013

Ulrike Draesner Ulrike Draesner (born 1962 in Munich) is a German author. She was awarded the 2016 Nicolas Born Prize. Life and work The daughter of an architect, Draesner grew up in Munich, Germany. She received a Bavarian State scholarship for the best perform ...

*2014 Gertrud Leutenegger *2015 *2016 Nora Bossong *2017

Petra Morsbach Petra Morsbach (born 1 June 1956) is a German author. Life and career Morsbach was born in Zürich, but grew up in Germany. She studied at Munich University and Leningrad Theater Academy. Morsbach's first novel, ''Plötzlich ist es Abend'' (' ...

*2018

Terézia Mora Terézia Mora (; born 5 February 1971) is a Hungarian writer, screenwriter and translator. Early life and education Terézia Mora was born in Sopron, Hungary, to a family with German roots and grew up bilingual. She moved to Germany after th ...

*2019

Monika Rinck Monika Rinck (born 29 April 1969 in Zweibrücken) is a German writer. Life and work After graduating from high school, Monika Rinck studied religious studies, history, and comparative literature in Bochum, Berlin and Yale. She writes poetry, pro ...

*2020 Ulrike Almut Sandig *2021 Emine Sevgi Özdamar *2022

References

External links

* {{official, https://www.bad-gandersheim.de/portal/seiten/roswitha-literaturpreis-900000189-23910.html German literary awards Literary awards honoring women Awards established in 1973 1973 establishments in Germany

List of Recipients

See also

References

External links