Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels (the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade), is an international peace prize awarded annually by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, an association of German book publishers and book sellers, which runs the Frankfurt Book Fair. The prize, worth €25,000, was founded in 1950. It has been awarded to many international writers including Sebastião Salgado, Margaret Atwood, and Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich.
Here is a statement from the jury in praise of Tsitsi Dangarembga’ works:
The German Publishers and Booksellers Association has chosen to award the 2021 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade to Tsitsi Dangarembga. Zimbabwean novelist and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga combines inimitable storytelling with a universally compelling perspective in a body of work that has made her not only one of the most important artists in her native land but also a popular and widely-recognised voice of Africa in contemporary literature.
“The Peace Prize means a great honour to me,” Dangarembga said in an in interview “I am very impressed that the German book trade has this award, I like that. It shows that the book trade is very aware of the impact that writing and storytelling have on the society and its transformation. It throws a perspective on my country and the world what is worthy of recognition. To receive this prize is very meaningful to me.”
Dangarembga will be honored during the award ceremony which will take place on Sunday, 24 October 2021, in Frankfurt’s Paulskirche. It will be broadcast live at 11 a.m. on ZDF.
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