Germany's Wawerzinek wins Bachmann literature prize

German author Peter Wawerzinek received this year's Ingeborg Bachmann prize, one of the most important in German literature, the jury announced Sunday.

The prize, worth 25,000 euros (30,900 dollars), is awarded every year by the town of Klagenfurt in southern Austria, after several days of competition in which a selection of writers read excerpts from their unpublished works.

Wawerzinek, 55, has written several works about the former East Germany, including his childhood in an orphanage after his parents abandoned him to flee to the West.

He was first invited to take part in the Bachmann prize competition in 1991.

Named after Ingeborg Bachmann, an Austrian writer who hailed from Klagenfurt, the prize was first awarded in 1977.