PRESS INVITATION: Accreditation now open for the Tranströmer Prize 2012

Date and time: Friday 4th of May, press conference starts at 2pm, the award ceremony starts at 6pm.
Place: Västerås, near Stockholm, Sweden. The press conference will be held at Västerås City Library, and the award ceremony at Västerås City Concert Hall.

Members of the media are welcome to attend the press conference and the award ceremony for the 2012 Tranströmer Prize, in honour of the 2011 Nobel literature laureate Tomas Tranströmer. The objective of the prize is to ”reward a high standard of authorship in the spirit of Tomas Tranströmer”, who will also be present at the ceremony that takes place in Västerås, where Tranströmer lived for 35 years.

This year’s prize is awarded to the German poet Durs Grünbein. He made his debut in 1988 with a collection of poems called Grauzone morgens and is awarded “ for poetry that incorporates present day with history in a multiplicity of genres”, as part of the motivation reads.

This year, the Tranströmer Prize has been increased to 200 000 SEK (23 000 €). The prize ceremony will be larger and other cultural events will take place in connection with the ceremony.

Preliminary program, Friday 4th of May
1.30pm The inauguration of a local square named after Tomas Tranströmer. Tomas Tranströmer will be present.
2pm Press conference with the winner of the Tranströmer Prize 2012, Durs Grünbein, and the chairman of the jury Per Wästberg, who has been a member of the Swedish Academy since 1997.
6pm The award ceremony for the Tranströmer Prize 2012 takes place at Västerås City Concert Hall. The Ceremony starts with a public celebration of the 2011 Nobel literature laureate Tomas Tranströmer.

Note to the editor
In order to attend, media accreditation is required via the City of Västerås’ press service. The accreditation gives access to the press conference, the inauguration of a local square named after Tranströmer and to the award ceremony. Please send the following information by email to Press Officer sara.olofsson@vasteras.se by the 27th of April 2012.

1. Last name
2. First name
3. Media company
4. Title (reporter/photographer/other)
5. Email address
6. Telephone number

Press Contact
Sara Olofsson
Press Officer, The City of Västerås
+46 (0)21 39 10 28
sara.olofsson@vasteras.se

Persons to interview and story ideas
In addition to the possibility of interviewing the prize winner Durs Grünbein, the following persons are available for interviews before and on the day of the award ceremony:

Anna Bengtsson, Ersatz
Durs Grünbein’s Swedish publicist and editor from the independent publishing house Ersatz.

Per Wästberg
A writer and a critic, Wästberg has been the chairman of the jury for the Tranströmer Prize since 1997 and a member of the Swedish Academy since 1997. 

Aris Fioretos
A writer and a member of the Tranströmer Prize jury. Will be having an open literary conversation with Durs Grünbein after the press conference. An expert on Durs Grünbein’s and Tomas Tranströmer’s poetry.

Eva Bonnier
Tomas Tranströmer’s long-time publisher at Albert Bonniers Förlag and one of Sweden's top publishing persons.

In the trails of Tranströmer
There are many places around Västerås, where Tranströmer lived for 35 years, that are central to some of Tranströmer’s poems.

A guided tour to the central places of poems like The Nightingale in Badelunda and Brief Pause in the Organ Recital is available for the media upon request.

Tranströmer Organ Recital. Tranströmer often visited the organ recitals at the cathedral. On the 27th of April, the final of the international organ recital festival Orgel '12 set up a commissioned concert based on Tranströmer’s poem Romanesque Arches.

Stone haiku. Ida Rosén Branzell is the woman behind a project where six of Tranströmer’s haiku poems have been sandblasted on paving stones and placed around central Västerås.

The Tranströmer prize
The Tranströmer prize is a literary prize that is awarded every second year in the Swedish city of Västerås, which was Tomas Tranströmer’s home for 35 years. It was established in 1997 by the City of Västerås and is presented to a lyricist from a Nordic or Baltic Sea country. Winners are appointed by a jury chaired by the author and member of the Swedish Academy Per Wästberg, with Nobel Prize winner in Literature 2011 Tomas Tranströmer as a member.

About Durs Grünbein
Durs Grünbein, poet and essayist, was born in 1962 in Dresden in the former GDR. He has received a number of literary prizes, including the Georg Büchner Prize in 1995 and he is a professor at the Arts Academy in the city of Düsseldorf.  His fictional authorship, which started in 1988 with the collection of poems Grauzone morgens, includes almost thirty volumes varying between poetry and essayism. 

Previous winners
1998 Vizma Belsevica, Knuts Skujenieks (Latvia)
2000 Adam Zagajewski (Poland)
2002 Bengt Emil Johnson (Sweden)
2004 Inger Christensen (Denmark)
2006 Lars Gustafsson (Sweden)
2008 Robert Bly (USA)
2010 Kjell Espmark (Sweden)