Rauris Literature Days from March 10 to March 14, 2027

Literature Days Special at Hotel Alpina

Rauris Literature Days 2027 – Culture & Comfort at Hotel Alpina

Immerse yourself in the world of literature and experience inspiring readings, exciting discussions, and unique encounters with authors.

The Rauris Literature Days 2027 will take place from March 10 to March 14, 2027. To make your stay as relaxing as it is inspiring, we have the perfect offer for you:

Accommodation & Breakfast at Hotel Alpina at a special price

• Double room for 2 people: €94.00
• Double room for single occupancy: €109.00

Enjoy the cozy atmosphere of our hotel and start your day with a rich breakfast, just a few minutes’ walk from the Rauris Literature Days.

Afternoon snacks and dinner can be booked upon request. Please contact our service staff or reception directly.

Secure your room now and enjoy literature in the Alps!

Main Prizes

The Rauris Literature Prize is awarded by the Salzburg State Government and is open to the best prose debut publication in German from the previous year. The prize, endowed with €10,000, is awarded at the opening of the Rauris Literature Days. The decision on the prize is made by an independent, annually changing jury with one vote each for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The prize is not awarded based on submissions.

For many authors, the Rauris Literature Prize is a springboard into the literary public sphere: The list of previous award winners includes names such as Franz Innerhofer, Ruth Klüger, and Michael Köhlmeier, as well as Herta Müller (Nobel Laureate in Literature 2009) and Felicitas Hoppe (German Book Prize winner 2012).

Promotional Prizes

The Rauris Promotional Prize is awarded by the Salzburg State Government and the market town of Rauris, and is endowed with €5,000. It is awarded for an unpublished manuscript on a topic announced each June. The texts are evaluated anonymously (without disclosure of names) by an independent, annually changing jury.

To the list of previous award winners of the Rauris Literature Days.

Readings

Since its founding in 1971, the Rauris Literature Days have annually presented authors from across the German-speaking world and their books. Since the mid-1990s, a theme has been central each time, which is frequently and diversely addressed in contemporary literature. The main events of the Literature Days take place in the evenings: readings and discussions about current books that relate to the central theme.

Some of these readings are organized as cooperations with Salzburg literary organizers: with the Literaturhaus Salzburg, with the literary forum “Leselampe,” and with the literary association “prolit.”

Since 1992, guests from foreign languages, countries, and cultures have also been invited to the Literature Days: authors who came from the Basque Country, Iceland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Bosnia, Albania, the Maghreb, Israel, Korea, Mongolia, and Malawi to the Salzburg region to present their texts.

These were the readings in 2026

For the theme of the 55th Rauris Literature Days 2026, Manfred Mittermayer and Ines Schütz have once again developed a versatile program that clearly relates to current social and economic realities. Under the motto “Loving,” it consciously goes beyond literary texts from private spheres of experience. Rather, love is understood in a socio-political sense: as an attitude of coexistence characterized by understanding and tolerance, humanity and solidarity – and thus as a counter-proposal to an everyday life often dominated by hatred and division, both privately and politically.

Authors whose works explore different facets, but also the vulnerabilities, of love are invited to readings and discussions: Xaver Bayer, Martina Clavadetscher, Ulrike Draesner, Norbert Gstrein, Christina König, Eva Schmidt, Marlene Streeruwitz, and Feridun Zaimoglu.

The program is complemented by the Rauris.Lyrik series with Michael Donhauser, Angelika Reitzer, and Silke Scheuermann, as well as Spoken Word with Bas Böttcher, Béla Rothenbühler, and Katharina Wenty. Furthermore, discussions between authors and students from Austrian universities are planned again.

The “Conversation about Literature” will focus on Ingeborg Bachmann on the occasion of her 100th birthday. Manfred Mittermayer will discuss this with Heinz Bachmann, Ulrike Draesner, and Irene Fußl, co-editor of the Salzburg Bachmann Edition. This year’s writing workshop will be led by Andrea Grill.

Rauris Literature Prize 2026 for Sophie Hunger

Sophie Hunger, the internationally renowned singer-songwriter and author born in Bern in 1983, has been awarded the Rauris Literature Prize 2026 for her debut novel Walzer für Niemand (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2025). The prize, awarded by the State of Salzburg, is endowed with 10,000 Euros. According to the jury, the book draws its particular appeal from the interplay of various forms of expression. At its core is an unusual friendship, far removed from the everyday, in which music plays a central role. The author has thus succeeded in creating a work that, with great empathy and formal precision, eludes conventional narrative conventions and convinces precisely because of this.

Hunger_Sophie_c_Marikel Lahana

Promotional Prize goes to Andreas Neuhauser

The 2026 Promotional Prize, awarded by the State of Salzburg and the market town of Rauris and endowed with 5,000 Euros, goes to author Andreas Neuhauser. The writer, born in Steyr (Upper Austria) in 1988, studied German and English literature and now lives in Salzburg. He was honored for his prose text Linz-Wegscheid, which addresses the theme of “proximity” and convinced the jury – consisting of Jessica Beer, Stefan Köglberger, and Anna Weidenholzer – on several levels. The complete abandonment of a classic narrative was particularly highlighted, which the jury described as a “courageous step.” Instead, the text invites an unconventional exploration of a district in the greater Linz area, allowing readers to discover new perspectives again and again.

Neuhaus_Andreas_c_Vanessa Meinhart