Your Chemnitz. Your fairy tale. 2021
Chemnitz fairytale book with winning texts published
On Wednesday, 1 December 2021, the first volume of the Chemnitz Fairytale Book, published by the City of Chemnitz, was published.
"Your Chemnitz. Your fairy tale." was the name of the writing competition organised by the city of Chemnitz for the first time in June 2021. Almost 70 fairy tale texts were submitted. A jury selected the three winning texts, which will now be published. The book will be available in bookshops from 1 December and online in a few days' time.
Veronika Ahnert 's story "Benno and the Keeper of the Riddle " impressed the five-member jury the most. The author won first place and 500 euros.
Her main character Benno takes the reader to a place that almost everyone in the city knows, the Karl Marx Monument, and is left chewing gum in amazement. With a lot of humour and ingenuity, Benno and his friends try to solve a mystery that leads them to less visible but nevertheless important things in the city. "Benno and the Keeper of the Riddle" was illustrated as the main story by the Chemnitz graphic artist Mathilde Schliebe with large-format pictures and marks the beginning of the Chemnitz fairytale book.
Marko Roscher won second place and 300 euros with his story "Renate Regenwurm und die Suche nach der verschwundenen Blühwiese". The fairy tale is dedicated to the vulnerability and beauty of nature and tells of friendship, trust and longing.
Third place and 200 euros went to Beatrice Werner and her fairytale "Lalulas". The funny gnomes bring a lot of colour to the city and work up quite a sweat when a star goes missing.
Mayor Sven Schulze: "There are many creative, hidden ideas in our city that want to be discovered, told and developed. This was also evident in the writing competition. I am delighted with the many profound, funny and colourful stories and hope that this fairytale book will delight many Chemnitz residents."
The book is published by the regional publishing house edition claus from Limbach-Oberfrohna. It has 52 pages and is published in an edition of 3000 copies. It costs 14 euros in bookshops. The "Karl liebt Käthe" gallery will publish more fairy tales from the writing competition in the coming days by sharing stories read by authors on social media.
The jury consisted of five participants: Anett Friedrich, head of the Filou daycare centre, Katrin Kropf, editor of the youth scene at Chemnitz City Library and author of the 2020 Chemnitz fairy tale "How the penguins came to Chemnitz...", Cornelia Siegel, officer in the mayor's department, Diana Winkler, owner of the Chemnitz children's bookshop MonOkel, and Christian Wobst, publisher of edition claus.