The theme for the 2022 edition was short story collections. A total of 44 manuscripts were submitted.
The first prize was awarded to John-Paul Gomez, well-known to RTL Today readers as the mastermind behind “The Luxembourg Wurst”. Gomez submitted a short story collection entitled The Idiot of St. Benedict, which the jury described as “a play between realism, dystopia, and surrealism.”
Guy Helminger came in second with his collection Das Geräusch der Stillleben, followed by Elise Schmit in third place with her collection Perfect Spheres – Stories and Complaints.
Due to the small number of manuscripts submitted in the category “writers between 12 and 19 years,” the jury decided to swap the traditional youth prize for a prix d’encouragement (“encouragement award”). This prize was given to the English text Do Women Love by Zeynep Celik. The age limit for the youth category was recently lowered from 25 to 19.
Pascal Seil, the president of the jury, confirmed that English is becoming increasingly popular as a literary language in Luxembourg.
The theme for the 2023 edition of the competition has already been announced: screenplay. Manuscripts can be submitted until 12 June 2023.
John-Paul Gomez spoke to RTL’s Beatrice Kneip following the awards.
National Literary Competition win
Further reading: Wurst creator wins 2022 Luxembourg Literary Competition
