The writer Sten Nadolny, one of the most widely read contemporary German-language authors, will be Mainz City Writer for 2005. This makes Nadolny the 21st Mainz City Writer since ZDF, 3sat, and the city of Mainz announced the award in 1984, which comes with a prize of €12,500 and free accommodation in the city writer's residence at the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz. Like the current city writer Raoul Schrott, the new award winner will produce a documentary on a topic of his choice in collaboration with ZDF.

Biography and career of Sten Nadolny

The new City Writer Sten Nadolny was born in Zehdenick an der Havel in 1942. The son of authors Isabella and Burkhard Nadolny, he grew up in Upper Bavaria. He studied medieval and modern history as well as political science in Munich, Tübingen, Göttingen, and Berlin. In 1976, he received his doctorate with a thesis on "Disarmament Diplomacy 1932/1933." He worked briefly as a teacher and later as a production manager in film. In 1980, he received the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize for an as yet unpublished chapter of his novel "Die Entdeckung der Langsamkeit" (The Discovery of Slowness), which marked his breakthrough as a freelance writer, accelerated by his first novel "Netzkarte" (Network Map, 1981). Nadolny now lives in Berlin.

Sten Nadolny became famous with his novel "Die Entdeckung der Langsamkeit" (The Discovery of Slowness), published in 1983. The title has become a proverbial phrase in German colloquial and advertising language. The book, which has been translated into all major world languages, tells the biography of the English sailor and explorer John Franklin, who set out in search of the legendary Northwest Passage near the Arctic. According to the jury, it is a biography that "becomes a subtle study of time and turns slowness into an art form, giving meaning to the rhythm of life." In 2004, this work was voted the 34th most popular book among Germans in the ZDF campaign "Unsere Besten – Das große Lesen" (Our Best – The Great Read).

Nadolny also caused a sensation with his generational novel "Selim oder Die Gabe der Rede" (Selim or The Gift of Speech, 1990), the picaresque novel "Ein Gott der Frechheit" (A God of Impertinence, 1994), and the novel about a life crisis "Er oder ich" (Him or Me, 1999). In 2003, Nadolny recounted the history of one of Germany's most famous publishing houses in a grand panorama of the times with the "Ullsteinroman."

The jury for the 2005 City Writer's Literary Prize included:

The writers: Katja Behrens (City Writer 1992), Dr. Friedrich C. Delius (City Writer 1997), Dr. Hanns-Josef Ortheil (City Writer 2000 and 2001), and the current City Writer, Dr. Raoul Schrott.

Representing the city of Mainz were Peter Krawietz, Head of Cultural Affairs, and representing ZDF were Program Director Dr. Thomas Bellut, Dr. Gottfried Langenstein (Director of European Satellite Programs), Chief Editor of Culture and Science Dr. Hans Helmut Hillrichs, Jury Chairman Werner von Bergen (Chief Editor of Culture and Science/Literature and Art), "aspekte" editor-in-chief Dr. Wolfgang Herles, and literature editor Dr. Thomas Hocke.