Guidelines for the awarding 2011

The Ingeborg Bachmann Prize will be awarded for the 35th time on 10 July in Klagenfurt. The opening of the Festival of German-Language Literature will take place on the evening of 6. July in the ORF Theatre. There will be readings and discussions from 7 to 9 July.

1. The provincial capital of Klagenfurt will sponsor the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize with the sum of 25,000 euros.

2. The prize will be awarded by a panel of judges on the occasion of the Festival of German-Language Literature, held by the provincial capital of Klagenfurt and the ORF Landesstudio Kärnten.

3. The panel of judges will comprise no fewer than seven and no more than thirteen journalists, critics, scholars and authors. The number of judges must be an odd number. Judges will be selected by representatives of the organisers.

4. A maximum number of fourteen authors will be considered for the prize. These authors will be proposed by members of the panel of judges – giving reasons for their choice – and invited to Klagenfurt by the organisers of the Festival of German-Language Literature. Previous winners of the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize or any other awards or grants received in the context of this event are eligible to participate and receive awards again.

5. It must be public knowledge at all times which author was proposed by which judge.

6. How the public event will proceed:

The organisers will appoint an impartial presenter who is not a member of the panel of judges and has no vote. Lots will be drawn to determine the order in which the invited authors will read from their own unpublished (not partially published) manuscripts (novel or short story) before the panel of judges, the audience and the media, including radio, TV and Internet. According to Para. 8 of the Copyright Act, a work is published "as soon as it has been made accessible to the public with the consent of the right-holder" (so even a radio or television broadcast counts as publication). The work is also deemed to be a publication if it has been published in the above sense in an adapted form (including translation). Further, texts which have already been submitted to similar competitions will not be considered. Works which have been given to individually named reviewers for the purposes of review (sample copies) are deemed to have been published in the above sense. Each author may read for a maximum of 30 minutes. A discussion among the panel of judges will follow each reading. The author concerned may, if he or she so wishes, intervene and give an opinion on the judges' critique. The author has the right to make the closing remarks. The time taken for reading and discussion should not exceed 60 minutes.

7. The whole event will be transmitted live by the satellite channel 3sat.

8. The winner of the prize will be decided by an open ballot. Judges are required to make the reasons for their choice of winner public, including via television and radio. If no one author gains an absolute majority, a second count will take place in which only those votes will count which were made for the authors who received the most and second most votes in the first round. If the highest and/or second highest number of votes went to two or more authors, a second ballot will be necessary to decide between them. Any further ballots required will be run according to the same guidelines. Each judge must cast a vote at each stage of the balloting process. There is no right to abstention. If in the final ballot there is still no outright winner, the prize will not be awarded and will be cancelled without replacement. The prize may not be shared.

Judges are required to be present during the entire event where award winners are being decided, with the exception of justified absence caused by illness, force majeure, etc.

9. Insofar as other prizes are on offer as part of this event alongside the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, the same guidelines shall be used to determine their allocation as are used for the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize. An exception to this is the Audience Prize.

10. Insofar as grants and awards are offered as part of this event alongside the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, the method of their allocation will be decided by the judges.

11. Authors are required to send their manuscripts as computer printouts and on a storage medium (PC-compatible disk or CD) by registered post to the ORF Landesstudio Kärnten by 12 May 2010 inclusive (date as per postmark). The text submitted at this point in time must be the same as the text read in the public performance. Copies of the manuscripts will be given to the judges, the presenter, representatives of the publishing houses and media companies which will be present, the authors reading at the event and the audience in the ORF Theatre. Copyright is retained at all times by the author; this also applies to broadcasting rights, if the excerpts transmitted on the radio, television or Internet should exceed the usual scope of reporting, including documentation, in the German language area.

12. The organisers plan to publish documentary material (e.g. book, video, CD, etc.) either themselves or on commission, as well as publishing the texts on the Internet, including translations, on the websites of  http://bachmannpreis.eu and www.3sat.de. For these purposes the texts used in the readings are to be submitted upon request and without charge. All rights are retained by the author. Authors must submit free of charge a professional print-quality colour photo (not a passport photo!) to the event organisers for use in the above publications.

13. Travel and accommodation expenses incurred by judges and the invited authors will be covered by the event organisers.

14. These guidelines are binding for judges and the invited authors, There is no right of appeal.