German Youth Literature Prize: The nominations for 2025 have been announced!

German Youth Literature Prize: The nominations for 2025 have been announced!

On September 17, 2025, the anticipation of the German Youth Literature Prize will become more and more tangible. Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Iris Kruse, who is in her second term as chairwoman of the critics' jury, was nominated for outstanding works of children's and young adult literature this year. The prize, which has been awarded annually since 1956, has established itself as one of the most important awards in this area and is endowed with a total of 72,000 euros.

In March, the jury of critics viewed 630 submissions, from which six titles were selected in the categories of picture books, children's books, young adult books and non-fiction books. These nominations not only contribute to the promotion of children's and young people's literature, but also reflect current developments and socio-political relevance, such as uni-paderborn.de notes.

Award ceremony at the Frankfurt Book Fair

The award winners will be announced on October 17th at 5:30 p.m. at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The awards ceremony will be streamed live at www.jugendliteratur.org broadcast so that those interested in literature can follow the event from anywhere. The following day, October 18th, Prof. Kruse will moderate a panel discussion with the newly crowned winners from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. This discussion will be available in the Book Fair media library the next day.

The German Youth Literature Prize aims not only to promote public interest in children's and young people's literature, but also to stimulate discussions about their social significance. This is made possible by three independent juries: the critics' jury, the youth jury and the special prize jury, which incorporate different perspectives into the selection of the prize winners bmbfsfj.bund.de reported.

A look at the 2024 award winners

In 2024, several notable titles were honored at the awards ceremony chaired by Federal Youth Minister Lisa Paus. “Wishes” by Mượn Thị Văn and Victo Ngai was honored in the picture book category. The children's book "Wolf" by Saša Stanišić, which deals with bullying among young people in a forest camp, and the youth book "Just before the Edge" by Eva Rottmann, which deals with the life of a skater in a high-rise housing estate, were also in focus. The non-fiction book "Games. On the trail of refugees from Afghanistan" by Patrick Oberholzer impressively documents the escape experiences and was part of the honors.

The youth jury awarded its prize to “Through the Great Fire” by Alice Winn, a historical novel about a secret love affair during the First World War. In addition, Rolf Erdorf and Astrid Bührle-Gallet were recognized for their outstanding contributions in the field of translation. The latter received the special “New Talents” prize for the translation of the French novella “May the Tigris Cry for You” by Emilienne Malfatto. All of this information illustrates the diversity and richness of the award-winning works in the field of children's and young adult literature.