The award-winners are the Indonesian author Andrea Hirata, the Indian writer Kiran Nagarkar, authors Stefan Nink and Steffen Möller, the adventurer and writer Christoph Rehage, along with Gunda Urban-Rump and Peter Rump of Reise Know-How Verlag for a lifetime’s work in the media.
The names of the winners of the ITB Book Awards 2013 have now been announced – having been identified and selected by an independent and highly qualified panel of judges comprising specialists on specific countries as well as representatives of the media and the book trade. This year the main category of the “Destination Awards” is dedicated to “Indonesia”, the official partner country of ITB Berlin 2013.
The winners of the ITB Book Awards 2013 are:
Destination Awards Indonesia
The journalist, photographer and author Roland Dusik was chosen for his thoroughly researched travel guides “Reise-Handbuch Indonesien”, “Reise-Taschenbuch Bali &Lombok” and “DuMont direkt Bali” published by DuMont. The other winners in the category ”Travel Guides” are Moritz Jacobi, Mischa Loose and Christian Wachsmuth for the “Stefan Loose Travel Handbuch Indonesien”, Susanne Beigott and Otto Braun for their book “Bali &Lombok” published by Michael Müller Verlag, and Eva Gerberding for the compact travel guide “Bali”, part of the “Merian live!” series. The special award in the category “Lifetime’s Work Award” for a lifetime’s contribution to publishing this year goes to the husband and wife publishers Gunda Urban-Rump and Peter Rump, based in Germany and Bali, from the publishing company Reise Know-How Verlag. In addition their standard work for individual travellers, the more than 700 page ”Bali &Lombok” received an ITB Book Award – together with the special prize for the three language guides “Kauderwelsch, Indonesisch Wort für Wort”, “Kauderwelsch, Basa Bal” and “Indonesisch Slang”.
The panel was joined by the Cologne-based radio journalist and president of the German-Indonesian Society, Karl Mertes, who provided a specific assessment of the publications on the destination of Indonesia. For anyone contemplating a trip to Indonesia, Mertes and the panel of judges also recommend the autobiographically based novel “Die Regenbogentruppe” (The Rainbow Troup), published by Hanser Berlin, written by a young resident of the island of Belitung and best-selling author, Andrea Hirata, who will be attending the award ceremony at the ITB Berlin in person to receive the ITB Book Award in the “Indonesian Literature” category.
In other categories the following award winners are as follows:
Travel Calendar
To mark a visually impressive start to the new travel season ITB Berlin, in association with the Friedrichshafen bookshop RavensBuch, presents a prize for the most attractive travel calendar at the beginning of December each year. The 2013 award goes to the calendar “Die Farben der Erde” (Colours of the Earth) in combination with the lavish illustrated book of the same name from publishers Kunth Verlag.
Outstanding Travel Guide Series
The prize, which is being awarded to a publication from Verlag Travel House Media, goes to the new series “Merian Porträts”, which traces the footsteps of famous historical personalities who were residents of New York, Barcelona, Dublin, Venice, Rome, Berlin, Vienna and Paris.
Outstanding Travel Books
In this category the panel of judges chose a title published by Mare Verlag, “Die verborgene Ordnung. Eine Reise entlang des Nullmeridians” by the journalist Alfred van Cleef, which provides readers with a combination of adventure and information that is both knowledgeable and very well written.
Humour
This year the panel of judges again considered the subject of “Humour” in travel books and presented two awards: With his book ”Donnerstags im Fetten Hecht”, published by Limes Verlag, the travel journalist Stefan Nink has proved that a wealth of travel experiences can also be compiled in the form of a fascinating narrative and a subtle, highly enjoyable novel. Stefan Nink has written more than 30 travel books, but “Fette Hecht” is his debut as a novelist. The author and cabaret artist Steffen Möller also impressed the panel with his new book, published by Malik Verlag. “Expedition zu den Polen” is an invitation to share in an amusing bus trip to Warsaw and reveals outstanding observational skills combined with an extremely humorous writing style.
Illustrated Travel Books
Fantastic impressions often denied to the normal traveller are offered by these four prize-winning illustrated books: “Die Farben der Erde”, a brilliant selection of photographs of the last paradises remaining on earth, with texts by Jakob Strobel y Serra and published by Kunth Verlag, “Die Wüsten von oben”, with photos by George Steinmetz and texts by Uwe George (Verlag Frederking& Thaler), the book of photographs entitled “America” by Horst Hamann, published by Edition Panorama with essays by Roger Willemsen and Thomas C. Breuer, and a combination of illustrations and travel descriptions about sea cruising published by Bruckmann and entitled “Traumreise Hurtigruten”, photographed by Axel M. Mosler and written by Ralf Schröder.
Travel Cookery Books
The panel chose as the winner a masterful example of the cookery genre. With numerous original recipes and augmented by well-informed tourism details from a very accomplished writer, together with some outstanding photos, this is truly an avant garde magnum opus, and the two award-winning German editions are available from Collection Rolf Heyne: Luke Nguyen’s “Vietnam. Das vietnamesische Kochbuch” (Vietnam. The Vietnamese Cookbook) and “Vietnam. Geschichten und Rezepte” (My Vietnam. Stories and Recipes), with photos by Alan Benson and Suzanna Boyd.
Sailing
A much smaller but also informative and invaluable combination of illustrated book about sailing and cookery book, “Kochen nach Beaufort” by Claudia Seifert and Julia Hoerschaus, published by Delius Klasing Verlag, captured the ITB Book Award in the “Sailing” category on account of its enthusiasm for a sailing trip and delicious meals on board, whatever the wind force.
Cartography
The prizewinner is a large format and truly monumental cartographic work from Bibliographisches Institut Mannheim: “Meyers Weltatlas. Die Erde im Grossformat”. This world atlas invites readers and travellers to make their preparations, to point to a particular place on the map and undertake a voyage of discovery, in particular with the aid of thematic maps with their wealth of supplementary information.
And to assist children aged 3 and above to achieve a better, earlier understanding of the world, its continents, oceans, people, animals and cultures, DorlingKindersley has produced the “Children’s World Atlas”, with its wealth of colourful illustrations, a pop-up globe, maps of countries and pull-out tables. The panel of judges thoroughly enjoyed this production, which is why they awarded it the prize.
Travelling with Children
This ITB Book Award went to publishers Bergverlag Rother for “Erlebnisurlaub mit Kindern. Korsika” by Marion Landwehr, “Erlebniswandern mit Kindern. Allgäu” by Eduard und Sigrid Soeffker, “Wandern mit dem Kinderwagen. Wien” by Rosemarie Stöckl-Pexa and “Wandern mit dem Kinderwagen. Inntal, Chiemgau, Berchtesgaden” by Sabine Kohwagner.
Adventurers 2013
Winner in the Adventurers 2013 section was a former sinology student who trained as a cameraman in Beijing. Christoph Rehage walked all over China and has described his experiences in the travel reportage “The Longest Way”, published by Malik. It is supplemented by an illustrated book containing many of his own photographs, “The Longest Way”, which has been published simultaneously by National Geographic. This was a truly crazy undertaking and Rehage successfully captured images of people and life in China in an impressive and undistorted way.
Innovation Prize
The award goes to a multilingual book, published in German, Italian and English, entitled “The Complete South Tyrol” by Hermann Gummerer and Franziska Hack, published by Folio Verlag. Using text and pictures and with a wealth of latest infographics, data and facts it shows the destination “South Tyrol” in an innovative and unconventional, and sometimes amusing way.
Non-fiction and Reference Books about Tourism
Jürgen Schmude, professor of economic geography and tourism research at Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich, together with his research assistant Philipp Namberger, receive the award for the reference work “Tourismusgeographie”, published by Wissenschaftliche BuchgesellschaftIt has been written in a clear and easily understandable form and contains fundamental terms from all the various disciplines of geography and related fields of study. This makes it also very suitable for any lay person with an interest in tourism research. An ITB Book Award also goes to a work of non-fiction published by Wagenbach Verlag and entitled “Dreckige Laken”, edited by Joseph Imorde, professor of art history at the University of Siegen, and Erik Wegerhoff, research assistant at the architectural faculty of the University of Munich. This is a collection of articles relating the critical experiences of travellers to Italy from the 18th to the 20th century.
Cultural Book Prize
With “Die Statisten“, published by A1 Verlag, a brilliant recreation of the satirical and literary qualities of the original English-language version of the novel “The Extras“ by the Indian writer Kiran Nagarkar, Giovanni and Ditte Bandini led the field for this particular ITB Book Award. More than 600 pages in length, the shocking, laugh-out-loud comical and yet very sensitive narrative, one that is devoid of any false sense of shame, deals with the wide scope of life of Hindu and Catholic cultures as seen through its two protagonists, Ravan and Eddie, and provides a colourful and vivid picture of the nineteen-sixties and seventies in the mega-city of Bombay. With this biting social assessment Nagarkar, a fully committed resident of Mumbai despite all the uncertainties that this implies, has succeeded in revealing some aspects of the present-day too.
Azerbaijan, Convention & Culture Partner ITB Berlin
Travel literature about the destination Azerbaijan, this year’s Convention & Culture Partner of the ITB Berlin, is quite sparse and largely out of date. The publisher Trescher Verlag is therefore to be congratulated for bringing out an extensively researched, up-to-date travel guide by the authors Philine von Oppeln, Gerald Läzer and Gila Altmann. By awarding a special prize for this new guide the panel acknowledges the efforts made by the publishers.
Discussions with the press – ITB Book Awards 2013
with Andrea Hirata and other winners
of the ITB Book Award 2013
Friday, 8 March 2013, 12 midday to 1 p.m.
Culture Conference Lounge, Hall 10.2
Presentation of the ITB Book Awards 2013
Friday, 8 March 2013, 4 p.m.,
Indonesia Hall 26 a, Exhibition Grounds
Chaired by: Mary Amiri
The panel of judges for the ITB Book Awards 2013
In addition to the chairperson Astrid Zand (ITB Berlin), the other members of the panel are:
Eckart Baier (Editor-in-Chief, Buchjournal, Frankfurt)
Cornelia Camen (editorial department BuchMarkt, Meerbusch)
Armin Herb (spokesman for the panel, editorial department Armin Herb, Munich)
Martina Kraus (RavensBuch, Friedrichshafen)
Gerd W. Seidemann (Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin)
Michael Zehender (dpa Themendienst, Berlin)
Associated panel members in the categories:
“Destination Indonesia”, Karl Mertes (journalist, President German-Indonesian Society, Cologne)
“Literature”, “Travel Cookery Book”, “Life’s Work”, Margrit Philipp (Büro Philipp, Friedrichshafen)
Concept, organization and communication:
Büro Philipp, Friedrichshafen
www.buero-philipp.de/itb_buchawards.html
About ITB Berlin and the ITB Berlin Convention
ITB Berlin 2013 will be taking place from Wednesday, 6 to Sunday, 10 March, and from Wednesday to Friday will be open to trade visitors only. Parallel with the trade show, the ITB Berlin Convention, the largest travel industry event of its kind in the world, will be held from Wednesday, 6 to Friday, 8 March 2013. Additional information is available at www.itb-convention.com . ITB Berlin is the global travel industry’s leading trade show. In 2012 a total of 10,644 exhibitors from 187 countries displayed their products and services to 172,000 visitors, who included 113,006 trade visitors.
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