Grand Prix Literature 2022 goes to Reto Hänny
The 2022 Swiss Grand Prix for Literature has been awarded to Reto Hänny for his body of work. Maurizia Balmelli has been honored with the Special Prize for Translation. At the same time, the Swiss Literary Prizes will be awarded for literary works published last year. The awards ceremony will take place on May 25, 2022, as part of the pre-opening of the Solothurn Literature Days.
Reto Hänny was born in 1947 in Tschappina in the canton of Grisons. The author writes down the same story in all his books: his own and that of his time. What drives Reto Hänny are his childhood in the Grisons mountains, his youth in Ruch (an anagram of Chur), the Zurich riots of the 1980s and their suppression by the police. However, his texts do not process these themes chronologically or autobiographically, but in associations, mementos, dreams and inventions, but above all through the imitation with which Reto Hänny appropriates world literature.
Reto Hänny received the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize in 1994. His most important works are Fall (2020), Bloom's shadow (2014), Chiaroscuro. A picture book (1994), Flight (1985), Zurich, beginning of September (1980) and Ruch. A report (1979).
Special price translation 2022
Maurizia Balmelli was born in 1970 and grew up on the Swiss side of Lake Maggiore. The fact that many works by various authors are read and known in the Italian-speaking world today is due to the work of Maurizia Balmelli, who is one of the most important translators from French and English into Italian. She has succeeded in building strong bridges between the literatures. Her constant commitment to teaching and training is of great value. Typical of her work is the ability to work with the target language to find rhythms and measures that correspond to the idiosyncrasies of the authors in the source language.
Swiss Literature Awards 2022
The Federal Literary Jury awarded the following works published in 2021:
- Yari Bernasconi, La casa vuota, Marcos y Marcos (born 1982 in Lugano, lives near Bern)
- Rebecca Gisler, D'oncle, Verdier (born 1991 in Zurich, lives near Zurich)
- Dana Grigorcea, Which do not die, Penguin Verlag (born 1979 in Bucharest, lives in Zurich)
- Ariane Koch, The imposition, edition suhrkamp (born 1988 in Basel, lives in Basel)
- Christian Kracht, Eurotrash, Kiepenheuer & Witsch (born 1966 in Saanen in the canton of Bern, lives in Zurich)
- Fabienne Radi, Émail diamond, art&fiction (born 1960 in Fribourg (Switzerland), lives in Geneva)
- Isabelle Sbrissa, tout tient tout, Héros-Limite (born 1971 in Geneva, lives in Undervelier in the canton of Jura)
