Ursula Krechel has won the €50,000 (about $58,000) Georg Büchner Prize, awarded annually by the German Academy for Language and Literature to authors "writing in the German language whose work is considered especially meritorious and who have made a significant contribution to contemporary German culture."
The jury said that with her poems, plays, radio dramas, novels, and essays, Krechel "counters the devastation of German history and the rigidity of the present with the power of her literature."
One of Germany's most prestigious literary awards, the prize is named in honor of the author of the influential German play, Woyzeck.