The Leipzig Book Fair Award is divided in three categories - fiction, non-fiction/essay, and translation - and represents outstanding contemporary literature in all its diversity. The prize is worth €60,000 and has been awarded since 2005 by a seven-member jury.
Klaus Detlef Olof is renowned among German translators of South Slavic literature, his translations of numerous novels and poems by important Slovene, Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, and Macedonian authors are highly acclaimed. Due to the linguistic challenge, the translation of two novels by Goran Vojnović, Southern Scum, Go Home!, and Đorđić Is Back, stands out. Klaus Detlef Olof, born in Oebisfelde, grew up in Lübeck and Hildesheim and studied Slavonic Studies in Hamburg and Sarajevo. Until 2005 he taught at the universities of Klagenfurt, Graz, and Vienna. He lives and works in Zagreb and Pula as a literary translator. In 1991 he received the Austrian State Prize for Literary Translation.
The award ceremony will occur on Thursday, 21 March 2024, at 4 p.m. in the Glass Hall at the Leipziger Messe. Klaus Detlef Olof will be the guest speaker at the presentation of the nominees in the Translation category at the Literary Colloquium in Berlin on 12 March and at the Forum International + Translators' Centre at the Leipzig Book Fair, Hall 4, C403, on 21 March at 1 pm.
