Claudio Magris

The Frankfurt Booksellers Peace Prize, awarded at the Frankfurt Book Fair every year, has been awarded to Italian author Claudio Magris. According to an Associated Press report, the jury that selects the winner of the annual prize “praised Magris’ unique engagement with ‘the cohabitation and cooperation between different cultures.'”

Often considered a contender for the Noble Prize, Magris’s best-known works include Danube and Microcosms.

Born in Trieste, he has written about Germany, central Europe and his native Italy. According to a report at EarthTimes, “Much of his writing has examined the interlocking cultures on the slopes of the Alps.” And, they go on to note, Magris “was a leftist representing his native Trieste in the Italian Senate from 1994 to 1996″ and in “2002 to set up Liberta e Giustizia (liberty and justice), a group of Italian intellectuals opposed to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.”

Currently a professor of German literature at the University of Trieste and a columnist for Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Magris will receive the honor October 19, 2009 at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Past winners of the €25,000 ($35,000) award, first given in 1950, include Orhan Pamuk, Vaclav Havel, Assia Djebar, Susan Sonntag and Juergen Habermas.