On Tuesday evening, the National Literature Archive in Mersch hosted the awards ceremony for the 2025 National Literary Competition. This year’s edition focused on the novel, with around 60 manuscripts submitted. Half of them were written in English, but the jury ultimately awarded two works in German and two in Luxembourgish.
For the National Literary Competition, unpublished manuscripts are submitted under a pseudonym, meaning the jury has no idea who the author is. Only once the final decision has been made is the envelope with the writer’s name allowed to be opened.
Among the adult authors, this year’s winners were all well-known names: Guy Helminger, Cathy Clement, and Jhemp Hoscheit. There was also a prize for a young writer: 15-year-old Maude Blaschette impressed the jury with her youth crime novel Silent Screams. Contrary to what the title might suggest, the text is written in German rather than English.
The third prize in the “adult authors” category went to Guy Helminger for his novel Elefantenhaut. He could not attend in person, sending his thanks instead via video message from Laos.
Neel mat Käpp is the title of Cathy Clement’s novel, which earned her second prize.
First prize went to Jhemp Hoscheit’s novel Den Impakt vu Klappentexter. Hoscheit has now been honoured at the National Literary Competition 13 times. His novel follows a widower who no longer wishes to read books that inspire sadness, and therefore relies entirely on dust cover blurbs to guide his choices.
The jury, chaired by Antoine Pohu, was particularly moved by the novel’s thoughtful exploration of grief and loss.
This year’s panel consisted of Antoine Pohu, Sofia Cumming, Sonia Da Silva, Helmuth Sperl, and Jil Weiler.
The theme for the 2026 National Literary Competition will be poetry. Poetry collections in Luxembourgish, German, French, or English may be submitted until 30 June 2026.
