Congratulations to Urs Allemann, recipient of the 2012 Heimrad Bäcker prize, awarded annually for experimental literature written in German. The jury’s announcement states:

In Urs Allemann’s poetry, something universal becomes clear: the fact that construction and destruction are two sides of the same coin, just like tradition and innovation. […] Allemann’s poetry is dialectical, and it allows us to be cognizant participants in what we can call, without any hyperbole, history.

Read the official announcement (in German) here.

For more about Allemann, read an interview with the author, check out Les Figues’ bilingual edition of his book Babyfucker, and visit the Urs Allemann page on Facebook.

You can also listen to the managing editor of Conjunctions read the beginning of Allemann’s “Jo’s Murder Game” from their most recent issue.

Congratulations again to Urs!