Susanne König, executive director of the powerHouse Arena and powerHouse on 8th bookstore in Brooklyn, N.Y., has won the first Frankfurt Buchmesse U.S. Booksellers Prize, which includes an all-expenses-paid trip to the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, Frankfurt Book Fair New York announced. The trip is made possible through funding from the German Foreign Office.
During her 12 years at powerHouse, König has held book launches for authors such as Al Gore, David Sedaris, Colum McCann, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Salman Rushdie, Antje Rávic Strubel and many more. She has also hosted the Festival Neue Literatur and is a member of the New Books in German jury.
König spent her childhood and formative years in Germany, Belgium and France, and in Paris worked at Sotheby's and for French art book publishers. In 2000, she moved to New York to represent Steidl Verlag in the U.S. In 2001, she joined powerHouse Books' editorial staff, and in 2005 she and her husband, Daniel Power, opened the powerHouse Arena, their first bookstore, followed by their second bookstore, in 2013.
To award the prize, the Book Fair's New York office collaborated with Reading the World, the nationwide celebration of translated literature that culminates in two days of literary discussion in New York with authors from around the world.
Frankfurt Book Fair New York and Reading the World will celebrate the award on Monday, September 18, at 6:30 p.m. at the powerHouse Arena (28 Adams St. in Brooklyn).
