THE 2019 WINNER: DANI ARBID
The Year of Things Lost
Dani Arbid
Forthcoming 2020
Winner of the inaugural Buro BDP Writing Prize, 2019.
In this kaleidoscopic novel, Dani Arbid tells the story of a contemporary hero - the cult figure of Zahreddine, migrant, prophet and mystery, as they embark on nothing less than world domination. Tracing the legacy of the War on Terror and its brutal beginnings as the catalyst of a new world, The Year of Things Lost is a radical re-positioning of the novel. From the Iraq War and Abu Ghraib revelations to the rise and fall of the Arab Spring, the migration “crisis” in Europe and the rise of rightwing populism across the Western world.
At its centre is Zahreddine, a young, radical poet who arrives in Berlin after embarking on a journey of self-preservation and who gathers around themselves a humble cult determined to take on the power structures of the day. When Zahreddine mysteriously disappears, reemerging in a blacksite prison hosted by a coalition of rogue state governments, a story of mass surveillance, espionage and betrayal emerges. The poet’s plans for world domination are made vividly clear as members of their following recount their interaction with them, while a slew of continental lawyers, activists and rebel fighters race to save them from the brink. The novel weaves these accounts together with the poet’s trail of philosophical letters and political programs.
Amidst an Arabfuturist, genderfluid backdrop, characters from all sides of an enduring struggle - military psychologists, human rights lawyers, arms dealers, freedom fighters - face off in a fight of life and death as events from the last twenty years erupt in this magnificent tale of love, rebellion and devotion, offering stark portrayals of the grittiest arenas of war.
Born in London, raised in Abu Dhabi, Dani Arbid is a writer, filmmaker and recent entrepreneur. He has worked and lived in Istanbul, Beirut and Berlin where, in 2018, he co-founded Barakunan GmbH, a publishing and media start-up. In September 2019, he was awarded the inaugural Buro BDP Writing Prize, with the novel The Year of Things Lost forthcoming in 2020
The 2019 Büro BDP Writing Prize
Supported by Babes Bar
About
Büro BDP is delighted to announce its inaugural Writing Prize, a prize dedicated to excellent new international writing that displays progressive and bold qualities in both form and content. Envisaged as a prize that takes its inspiration from the unique, cosmopolitan and open city of Berlin and its inhabitants the award will result in a book publication.
It is envisioned that this is a reward for the best contemporary (and for want of a better word) creative writing that is formally innovative, genre bending and which may point toward a 21st century supra-national tradition that is continually in the process of emerging. A familiarity with the BDP backlist may point toward the arena of literature and contemporary art in which the press is interested in producing.
The shortlist will be selected by the BDP team from which the jury shall choose a winner. The juries will judge these shortlisted entries anonymously.
Prize
1st Prize: 1000 euro cash prize
The winner will have an opportunity to publish a book with Broken Dimanche Press in 2020 and excerpts from the shortlisted entries will be collected together in a journal, which will be published at the time of the prize giving.
Judges
Ida Benke, curator and senior editor of Broken Dimanche Press
John Holten, novelist and editor-in-chief of Broken Dimanche Press
Travis Jeppesen, artist and writer
Quinn Latimer, poet and critic
Entry
The prize is open to anyone who who is resident in the EU and Associated Agreement countries
Entries should take the form of:
A writing sample of up to 5000 words or up to 50 pages.
A description of the overall book
CV or biographical note with contact email
Order Number as proof of payment of entry fee (https://www.brokendimanche.eu/shop-1/the-2019-bro-bdp-writing-prize)
Entry fee is 7 euros. This goes towards running costs of the prize and its viable continued existence in the future.
Email bdpwritingprize@gmail.com
Deadline: midnight May 31, 2019
Timeline
The deadline is May 31, 2019 at midnight.
The shortlist will be announced in June.
The winner will be announced at a party at Babes Bar in Berlin in July.
About The Judges
Ida Bencke is a curator and editor. She has worked with BDP since 2011 on countless books, exhibitions and projects. She is co-founder of the curatorial collective Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology. She is currently an external lecturer at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.
John Holten is a novelist and publisher of Broken Dimanche Press. Most recently his writing has appeared in Partisan Hotel, Frieze, Electric Literature and gorse. In 2018 an excerpt of his first novel, The Readymades, was anthologized in The Other Irish Tradition (Dalkey Archive Press) and will be republished by gorse editions in September 2019.
Travis Jeppesen is the author of the novels Victims, Wolf at the Door, and The Suiciders, as well as two volumes of poetry and a collection of art criticism, Disorientations: Art on the Margins of the “Contemporary”. In 2018, his book See You in Pyongyang, about his time living and studying in North Korea, was published. His essays and criticism have appeared in Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, Artforum, Afterall, Art in America, Texte zur Kunst, Flash Art, Bookforum, Spike, Frieze, and Mousse, among other publications. He is the recipient of a 2013 Arts Writers Grant from Creative Capital / the Warhol Foundation, and has taught as a visiting lecturer in Critical Writing in Art and Design at the Royal College of Art, where he completed his PhD in 2016. His calligraphic and text-based art work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Wilkinson Gallery (London), Exile (Berlin), and Rupert (Vilnius). Jeppesen is based in Berlin and Shanghai, where he teaches at the Institute for Cultural and Creative Industry at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His new collection of essays, Bad Writing, is forthcoming from Sternberg Press.
Quinn Latimer is a California-born writer and editor whose work often explores feminist economies of writing, reading, and image production. She is the author of Like a Woman: Essays, Readings, Poems (Sternberg Press, 2017); Sarah Lucas: Describe This Distance (Mousse Publishing, 2013); Film as a Form of Writing: Quinn Latimer Talks to Akram Zaatari (Wiels, 2013); and Rumored Animals (Dream Horse Press, 2012). Her writings and readings have been featured widely, including at REDCAT, Los Angeles; Chisenhale Gallery, London; Radio Athènes, Athens; the Poetry Project, New York; the Venice Architecture Biennale; and Sharjah Biennial 13. Latimer was editor-in-chief of publications for documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel.
About Broken Dimanche Press / Büro BDP
Since ten years the prize winning Broken Dimanche Press has established itself as a European publishing house rooted firmly in the local Berlin scene, working at the intersection of art and literature with a host of international artists and writers. In 2010 it won the Karlspreis für Jugend in Aachen for its book You Are Here - an anthology looking at Europe through the prism of Berlin. Its project space Büro BDP has held many exhibitions, workshops and readings in various shapes and sizes. In 2016 and 2018 it was awarded the Prize for Artistic Spaces and Initiatives by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe
About The Supporter: Babes Bar
Babes Bar invites artists to create works, situations and performances across a variety of contexts: from dinners to karaoke to concerts. Since 2016 Babes Bar has hosted many events at venues including Agora, BQ Gallery, Berlinische Galerie, KW Institute for Contemporary Art and Martin Gropius Bau.
Terms and Conditions
The competition is open to writers residing in the EU and AA countries. Writers of any nationality may enter so long as they are residents of the EU and AA countries.
Entry fee is 7 euros. This goes towards running costs of the prize and its viable continued existence in the future.
Work must be original
Translations are allowed but must be marked as such with the original author listed and permission confirmed.
Entry word count is 5000 words. Minimum is 1000 words or a maximum of 50 pages.
Only one work per person
Only work in English
Unsuccessful entries will not be contacted and no editorial correspondence will be entered into
Broken Dimanche Press will have the exclusive right to publish the winning entries but also reserves the right not to publish
The shortlisted works will be published in a journal to be launched at the prize giving.