2 English-Language Plays Receive Prizes at 2024 National Literary Competition

On Monday 4 November 2024, Luxembourg's Ministry of Culture announced the winners of the 2024 National Literary Competition.

The jury, composed of Luc Schiltz (president), Tullio Forgiarini, Carole Lorang, Sarah Rock and Pascal Seil, has selected the winners of this year's National Literary Competition, which centred around plays written in Luxembourgish, French, German and/or English.

First prize in the category for adult authors aged 20 and up went to Urd. Pièce multilingue pour un coupable, sa victime, un mannequin de vitrine, plusieurs mannequins gonflables et le public, a multilingual play by Charles Meder. The jury selected this work out of 48 submissions, having been "won over by the originality of the form of the dialogued monologue, which makes it a play resolutely about actors". The jury statement continued: "Providing a playground for actors and directors, the situational comedy and a note of scathing and acidic satirical humour increase throughout the play to unfold in a violent settling of scores with contemporary Luxembourg society. The protagonist with complex duality uses political, social and linguistic clichés by jumping from one language to another in a natural way".

The jury awarded the second prize in this category to Les Bienheureux by Antoine Pohu (in French).

The third prize went to Erik Abbott's English-language play Second Zechariah.

In the category for young authors aged 12-19, the first (and only) prize went to another English-language play, It's Raining Cats and Dogs, by Aimée Dhonte. The jury selected this work out of four submissions and described it as "a touching play, filled with magical poetry, where literature gradually transfigures the complicated life of its teenage heroine".

In the adult category, the first prize winner receives €7,500 and a contribution of up to €5,000 towards the publication costs of the winning work upon submission of a file by a recognised publishing house. The second prize winner is awarded €4,000, while the third prize winner receives €3,000.

In the young adult category, the first prize winner is awarded €3,000.

The official award ceremony for the 2024 National Literary Competition will take place on Monday 9 December at 19:30 at the Centre National de Littérature in Mersch (2 Rue Emmanuel Servais, L-7565).

Luxembourg's Minister for Culture, Eric Thill, commented: "New talents, as well as established authors, have emerged, and I sincerely hope that their works will soon come to life on our national stages".

Since 1978, the Ministry of Culture has been organising the National Literary Competition to encourage literary creation in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Each year, the competition is dedicated to a different literary genre; the 2025 edition will focus on novels written in Luxembourgish, French, German and/or English. For further details, see https://chronicle.lu/category/awards/51795-2025-national-literary-competition-to-focus-on-novels