Kafka Prize Reading

The Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize Committee is delighted to announce this year's winner: Shoshana von Blanckensee for her novel Girls Girls Girls (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2025). Congratulations to Shoshana!

Author visit

von Blanckensee will be visiting the University of Rochester on Thursday, October 29th at 5PM for a reading and reception in the Welles Brown Room of Rush Rhees Library. Please join us for discussion, snacks, and an opportunity to purchase the book and have it signed!

On behalf of this year’s Kafka Prize jury, Taylor Thomas wrote:
"Girls Girls Girls is a propulsive queer coming-of-age story set in what I’d like to think of as the heyday of lesbian culture: San Francisco in the 90’s. It’s a story that has stayed with me long after I read it, and has quickly become one that I know I’d return to, if only to soak in the nostalgia of finding oneself and the lengths you’ll go to for your first queer love."

Reading group

The Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize Committee is hosting a reading group for this year's winning book, Girls Girls Girls by Shoshana von Blanckensee. von Blanckensee will be visiting the University of Rochester on Thursday October 29th at 5PM for a reading and reception.

The reading group will be casual and open to staff, faculty, students, and community members. You do not need to attend each meeting or the entirety of meetings, where we will hold discussions of various aspects of the book. We will offer a free copy of the book to those who register (up to 25 participants), and we will offer snacks during meetings.

Please register for the reading group here so we can be sure to have a copy of the book for you.

The reading group will meet in the Humanities Center Lounge in Rush Rhees Library on:

Friday, October 9 from 12-1Friday, October 23 from 12-1Potential lunch with author on October 29 - Details TBD