Colombian author Pilar Quintana is this year’s winner of Litprom’s LiBeraturpreis, an award honouring female writers from the Global South. Her novel »La Perra« (»Hündin«, translated into German by Mayela Gerhardt, published by Aufbau) is a »profound human tragedy told in skilfully sparse prose«, the award’s jury says. Pilar Quintana plans to attend Frankfurter Buchmesse.

Pilar Quintana says: »In Colombia, since you are born, you are told that proper girls should have straight hair. It is not easy to be a woman in Colombia. It’s even more difficult if you’re racialized, impoverished, and from an isolated area, like Damaris, the character in my book.
I want to thank the women from Colombia, especially those born with curly hair like me — you don’t need to straighten it if you don’t want to — and I want to give special thanks to Black women in isolated areas like Colombia's Pacific Coast, where the book is set. This award is because of you and for all of you. Thank you as well to my publishers Aufbau Verlag, to my agent Sandra Pareja, to my husband and my son, to Mayela Gerhardt the translator, and, of course, to the jury and the Litprom team for this LiBeraturpreis. I’m truly honored.«