Press Release

German Non-Fiction Prize 2021: Submissions from publishers are now being accepted

Award for outstanding German-language non-fiction that inspires social debate / Publishers may submit titles until 20 November 2020 / Call for submissions on anmeldung.deutscher-sachbuchpreis.de

Seeking non-fiction book of the year: Until 20 November 2020 publishers can submit their titles for the German Non-Fiction Prize 2021 at anmeldung.deutscher-sachbuchpreis.de. The prize is awarded by the Stiftung Buchkultur und Leseförderung des Börsenvereins des Deutschen Buchhandels (Foundation for Book Culture and the Promotion of Reading of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association) to honour outstanding non-fiction books written in German that inspire social debate. After the 2020 prize year was prematurely cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic, the prize will now be awarded for the first time in 2021.

Publishers may submit two German-language monographs each from their current or planned programme and may recommend up to five additional titles. These titles must be published between May 2020 and April 2021 and be available in bookstores no later than 20 April, when the nominations will be announced. Publishers can subsequently submit advance reading copies, e-books and galleys through 5 February 2021. To participate, publishers must be members of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels or of the Swiss or Austrian equivalents, the Schweizer Buchhändler- und Verleger-Verband and the Hauptverband des Österreichischen Buchhandels, at the time of nomination.

The Stiftung Buchkultur und Leseförderung des Börsenvereins will award the prize, worth a total of 42,500 euros, on 14 June 2021 at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin.

The criteria for the award are the relevance of the topic, narrative power of the text, its presentation in non-technical language and the quality of the research. Publications may be from any subject area and field of knowledge. It should be possible to make a connection between the texts and the present.

The non-fiction book of the year is selected through a two-stage process. First, an independent jury compiles a list of nominations comprising eight titles, which will be announced on 20 April 2021. From this selection, the members of the jury will then choose the non-fiction book of the year. The eight authors will only find out who among them has won the German Non-Fiction Prize on the evening of the awards ceremony itself. The winner will receive 25,000 euros, the seven other finalists 2,500 euros each.

The Deutsche Bank Stiftung (Deutsche Bank Foundation) is the main sponsor of the prize, which is also supported by the technology and information provider MVB and the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss (Humboldt Forum Foundation in the Berlin Palace).

Further information is available at www.deutscher-sachbuchpreis.de and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The hashtag is #DSP21