City of Linz - Marianne.von.Willemer award

Marianne von Willemer award (City of Linz)

You will receive a one-off prize of 5,000 EUR. The City of Linz (Women’s Office) awards this prize to a woman for her work in the fields of literature or digital media, in memory of the Linz-born writer Marianne von Willemer. The prize is awarded alternately in two categories: a literature prize in odd-numbered years and a digital media prize in even-numbered years. The digital media prize covers works such as digital photography, video, computer animation, generative graphics, digital music, interactive installations and web projects. The literature prize category covers German-language literary texts of up to 18,000 characters in length, including spaces. The prize money is awarded to a single female artist and cannot be split.

Who can apply

• Who you are: You are a woman. Groups may apply for the Digital Media Prize, but the author must be a woman.
• Link to Linz: You must provide written evidence of a connection to Linz. For the literature prize, this may be your place of birth, your place of residence or your literary work; for digital media, a written explanation of the connection is sufficient.
• Field: Your work is a literary text (in odd-numbered years) or a work of art in the field of digital media (in even-numbered years).
• Your work: It has not yet won any prizes. Previously published works are eligible.
• Text type: Non-fiction and children’s books are not eligible for the literary prize.
• Nationality: Any nationality can apply.
• No anonymous entries: You must enter your name.

How to apply

You submit your entry via the City of Linz’s online entry form. The digital media round runs until 25 May. A jury comprising at least three experts will assess the entries and propose a winner. The City will then confirm the winner and honour her at an awards ceremony.

How realistic are your chances?

This prize has strict eligibility criteria: only women may enter, entrants must demonstrate a genuine connection to Linz, and in each round only one female artist wins in each category. As a result, the pool of entrants remains small compared to open literary competitions. If you clearly fit into the specialist field honoured this year and can demonstrate a genuine connection to Linz, your prospects are good. As this is a single, prestigious prize, the competition remains fierce.