Dresden Poetry Prize 2024 awarded to Borkovec and Leß

The city of Dresden has awarded its 15th Poetry Prize, endowed with a total of 15,000 euros, to the Czech poet Petr Borkovec and his German colleague Georg Leß. The award was presented on Sunday at the Festspielhaus Hellerau, with each of the two winners receiving 7,500 euros, the city council announced. The prize is awarded every two years and is aimed at poets who write in German or Czech and are based in Europe.

Petr Borkovec, born in 1970, lives in Prague as a poet, translator and cultural editor. The jury attested him a "polished irony and a specific subversive humor". "The poems are very sensual, visuality dominates, his confident use of language seems to generate a further, sixth sense, which Petr Borkovec masters masterfully," they said.

In the opinion of the jury, Georg Leß (43) overlaps motifs: "It is never what it seems to be at first glance." In his texts, "calculated breaks in imagery repeatedly create productive unrest and a humor all of their own". He surprises in new ways with each of his books. Leß is one of the most idiosyncratic poets of his generation.