The shortlist for 2022 Phantastikpreis der Stadt Wetzlar (Fantasy Award of the City of Wetzlar) has been announced.

The prize has been awarded since 1984 and is worth € 4,000.

• Pantopia by Theresa Hannig (Fischer Tor)
• Athos 2643 by Nils Westerboer (Hobbit Presse Klett-Cotta)
•  Kondorkinder by Sabrina Železný (Art Script Fantasy),

As for why Wetzlar, a town of 52,000 people in Hessen, has its own fantasy award — Wetzlar is home to the Phantastische Bibliothek-Wetzlar (Fantasy Library Wetzlar), which has the largest publicly accessible SFF collection in the world. The aim of the library is to collect everything in print which belongs to the categories of science fiction, fantasy, literature, classical fantasy, horror, utopian novels, fantastic journey and adventure novels, fairy tales, saga, myths, etc. At the moment the library is in possession of 150,000 titles.