Lena Schätte wins 50th Ingeborg Bachmann Prize for story of two obese girls
The 32-year-old German author and psychiatric nurse took the €30,000 main prize and the audience award at the jubilee edition of the prestigious German-language literary competition in Klagenfurt, Austria.
The winning text
Lena Schätte's "Was wir tragen" (What We Carry) tells the story of two overweight secondary-school girls who endure fat-shaming and social exclusion, fighting back with a mix of vulnerability and cruelty. The text avoids easy empowerment narratives, instead exploring the ambivalence of victimhood. Schätte, born in Lüdenscheid in 1993 and now living in Altena, worked as a psychiatric nurse before studying at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig. Her debut novel "Das Schwarz an den Händen meines Vaters" (2025) was longlisted for the German Book Prize.
Jury praise
The seven-member jury was unusually unanimous. Swiss juror Thomas Strässle, who had invited Schätte to the competition, praised the text's "existential force" and "stupendous unsentimentality."
The text has an existential force and a stupendous unsentimentality.
Juror Laura de Weck said Schätte possessed a "literary superpower," noting that her clear, simple language produced something "very complex and emotional."
She has a literary superpower. Although her language is very clear, simple and sober, something very complex and emotional emerges.
A double jubilee
The 2026 edition marked the 50th Tage der deutschsprachigen Literatur and the 100th birthday of the prize's namesake, Ingeborg Bachmann (born 25 June 1926). To honour the occasion, the main prize was raised to €30,000. The competition opened on 24 June with a speech by 2020 winner Helga Schubert, who urged the audience to read Bachmann's works rather than focus on her biography. Schubert herself had been invited to the contest in 1980 but was barred from leaving East Germany. Over the following three days, 14 authors (10 women and 4 men) read from unpublished texts, with the jury debating each entry in a notably fair and precise manner.
- Opening speech by Helga Schubert
- First day of readings; 14 authors compete
- Lena Schätte wins main prize and audience award
Other prizes
Schätte also won the audience award and the Carinthian Summer prize, bringing her total to €40,000. The Kelag-Preis (€15,000) went to Hungarian-born poet and performance artist Kinga Tóth for "Ostblock-Mädel," a musical text about labour migration, identity and language. Swiss author Seraina Kobler, the only candidate from Switzerland, left without a prize.
Reactions
Schätte, who is currently serving as Erfurt's city writer, called the win "a fever dream."
It's a fever dream.
She said she was glad the prize would bring more attention to body positivity, noting that many people affected "live so isolated and are not really seen, even though they are actually so visible." Erfurt's mayor Andreas Horn praised her as "a significant literary voice of our time."
