Yazidi writer wins literary prize in Germany
Yazidi writer Ronia Osman won the Mara cassens award for her debut novel, «Summer».
The prize goes to writers of debut novels, and the winners are chosen by a team of volunteer readers. A 15-person selection Committee pre-selected eleven selected from 58 submitted debut novels.
The jury decided to award Osman for her novel "Die Sommer" (Summer), in which the main character Leila, who lives in Munich, Germany, visits her Yazidi village in Northern Syria (Rojava) in the summer.
The main character Leila, the daughter of a German woman from the black forest and a Yazidi, is in high school. Her environment makes it difficult to classify Leila – she is a Yazidi, not a Kurdish Muslim or a Syrian, " says the Heidelberg cultural center DAI Heidelberg about Osman's book.
The jury noted that the most impressive thing "in the novel is that it gives a lot of knowledge" about music, about an angel in the shape of a peacock (also known as Melek Taus in Yazidi), about cooking, as well as about the war in Syria, dangers and flight.”
"We are immersed in the inner worlds of people we usually call refugees," the jury members say.
"The search for self-identity of a young woman who grew up in two cultures and does not feel completely belonging in either of them is shown convincingly. As readers, we feel the confusion between these worlds. Ronia Osman enriches German literature with her debut novel "Die Sommer" - a voice we would like to learn more about in the future.”
The Mara cassens award was originally scheduled for January 7, 2021 at The Hamburg house of literature. But this year's award ceremony was moved to may 2021. Osman will receive a cash prize of 20,000 euros-one of the highest financial awards in the field of literature in Germany.
Last year, she also won the audience award at the prestigious German-language literature festival in Klagenfurt, Austria, and received 7,000 euros. She also received 5,000 euros from the Klagenfurter city scholarship.
Ronia Osman, 26, was born in Munich and is a German-Yazidi journalist, writer and poet. She studied at the Leipzig German Literary Institute and currently lives in Leipzig.
She has written for German Newspapers such as Der Spiegel, Zeit Online, and Taz. This year, Osman was a member of the jury at the Dohuk international film festival in Kurdistan.
“I visited my family in Kurdistan-my Yazidi family. I spent some time with them. After that, I went back to Germany and wrote an article about what I saw and what people were saying about the Yazidi genocide in the media. This article is about the 2014 genocide.”
Editorial Board Yazidis.info congratulations to Ronia Osman on her victory and we wish her further success.
Tags: #yazidisinfo #newsyezidi #aboutyazidi #ezidiofgermany #roniaosman
Yazidi writer wins literary prize in Germany
Yazidi writer Ronia Osman won the Mara cassens award for her debut novel, «Summer».
The prize goes to writers of debut novels, and the winners are chosen by a team of volunteer readers. A 15-person selection Committee pre-selected eleven selected from 58 submitted debut novels.
The jury decided to award Osman for her novel "Die Sommer" (Summer), in which the main character Leila, who lives in Munich, Germany, visits her Yazidi village in Northern Syria (Rojava) in the summer.
The main character Leila, the daughter of a German woman from the black forest and a Yazidi, is in high school. Her environment makes it difficult to classify Leila – she is a Yazidi, not a Kurdish Muslim or a Syrian, " says the Heidelberg cultural center DAI Heidelberg about Osman's book.
The jury noted that the most impressive thing "in the novel is that it gives a lot of knowledge" about music, about an angel in the shape of a peacock (also known as Melek Taus in Yazidi), about cooking, as well as about the war in Syria, dangers and flight.”
"We are immersed in the inner worlds of people we usually call refugees," the jury members say.
"The search for self-identity of a young woman who grew up in two cultures and does not feel completely belonging in either of them is shown convincingly. As readers, we feel the confusion between these worlds. Ronia Osman enriches German literature with her debut novel "Die Sommer" - a voice we would like to learn more about in the future.”
The Mara cassens award was originally scheduled for January 7, 2021 at The Hamburg house of literature. But this year's award ceremony was moved to may 2021. Osman will receive a cash prize of 20,000 euros-one of the highest financial awards in the field of literature in Germany.
Last year, she also won the audience award at the prestigious German-language literature festival in Klagenfurt, Austria, and received 7,000 euros. She also received 5,000 euros from the Klagenfurter city scholarship.
Ronia Osman, 26, was born in Munich and is a German-Yazidi journalist, writer and poet. She studied at the Leipzig German Literary Institute and currently lives in Leipzig.
She has written for German Newspapers such as Der Spiegel, Zeit Online, and Taz. This year, Osman was a member of the jury at the Dohuk international film festival in Kurdistan.
“I visited my family in Kurdistan-my Yazidi family. I spent some time with them. After that, I went back to Germany and wrote an article about what I saw and what people were saying about the Yazidi genocide in the media. This article is about the 2014 genocide.”
Editorial Board Yazidis.info congratulations to Ronia Osman on her victory and we wish her further success.
Tags: #yazidisinfo #newsyezidi #aboutyazidi #ezidiofgermany #roniaosman
