OREANDA-NEWS. The journalist, writer and blogger Kathrin Passig is the winner of the Johann Heinrich Merck Award for Literary Critique and Essay 2016. The German Academy for Language and Poetry will be presenting the prize worth € 20,000 on November 5 in Darmstadt. The Johann Heinrich Merck Award is one of the most important distinctions for literary critics and essayists in the German-speaking world. Merck sponsors the award in memory of the writer and literary critic Johann Heinrich Merck, who lived in Darmstadt from 1741 to 1791.

Merck sees the promotion of literature as part of its social responsibility. In addition to health and the environment, culture is a strategic sphere of activity of the company’s sustainability efforts. “Cultural offers help to make a society worth living in; they inspire creativity and enthusiasm. As a science and technology company, we can benefit from this. That is why Merck promotes literature as well as music and education around the world,” said Stefan Oschmann, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck.
The works by this year’s winner, Kathrin Passig, address the opportunities and risks of daily life in the digital world. “Digitalization is no doubt one of the greatest challenges facing our society, as well as the business world. We at Merck are embracing digitalization and aim to make even better use of the tremendous growth opportunities it offers our businesses. Public debate of the topic is thus valuable to us,” Oschmann continued.

Kathrin Passig “describes and analyzes digital culture as a way of life,” said the German Academy for Language and Poetry. The jury is awarding her the Johann Heinrich Merck Award for Literary Critique and Essay for “her highly original texts that address a broad spectrum of topics and expertly span the blog, book and essay formats“. In the jury’s opinion, “in her endeavors to try out new writing forms and formats, she not only reflects the conditions of authorship, but also productively calls into question the traditional notions of the cultural scene, doing so well beyond the sphere of the writing process.“ With her work, “she furthers the critical examination of an epochal change and explores new possibilities of essay and critique beyond the Gutenberg galaxy.”