Eva Rossmann, who was awarded the Lower Austrian Prize in Literature, declined the honor.
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| Eva Rossmann |
Despite being granted the Lower Austria State Prize for Literature in May, novelist Eva Rossmann (now 61) has decided not to receive the honor.
Gerhard Ruiss, director of IG Autorinnen and a member of the jury, claims that Rossmann had planned to contribute the prize money before the “gender decree” was passed by the black-blue state administration.
The state government’s decision to reject the prize was not made public, which Ruiss now criticizes. An impartial jury recognized Rossmann’s achievements as a non-fiction writer, novelist, and mystery writer by awarding her the highest literary prize in the state of Lower Austria (11,000 euros). Her constant fight for the rights of women and people in general, as well as her support for those who have been marginalized and disenfranchised from society, are hallmarks of her writing and activism.
The event honoring the art prize winners on November 3 was where the award was supposed to be presented.
However, a rumor that Eva Rossmann would not take the award supplied the information and confirmation, as Ruiss argues, “officially, neither anyone from the jury nor the laudator was informed of this fact, which had been known to the Lower Austrian state government for a long time.” “It would have been the responsibility of the state cultural policy to notify all parties concerned that the winner had declined the award, that the reward would not be presented, and that the laudation would not be published, but this was not done.
Because of this, the jury’s hard work is “shrugged over”: “One thing is certain: where the medal for literature should stand, there will be a blank place in 2023.
The historical and ongoing role of artists and the organizations that support them in shaping the canon A big, profound breach of trust between art and culture and politics has emerged, as anticipated by the present Lower Austrian state administration, and it will no longer be so simple to close.
Source: APA