“Swiss Literature Prize Winners Announced at Solothurn Literary Days- Multilingualism and Migration in Focus”

2023-05-19 16:52:30

The French-speaking Fanny Desarzens, Anne-Sophie Subilia and Eugène received a Swiss literature prize, like four German-speaking and Ticino authors on Friday evening at the Solothurn Literary Days. The President of the National Council opened fire.

The Grisonne Leta Semadeni won the highest distinction, the Swiss Grand Prize for Literature 2023 for all of her work, awarded by the Federal Office of Culture (OFC). Another Grison did not miss this meeting on the banks of the Aare during the Ascension weekend: Martin Candinas (Le Center / GR), President of the National Council.

“Literature can develop visions for which we politicians perhaps sometimes lack the courage. Literature cannot change the world, but it allows us to see it as it really is, he told the opening of the ceremony in front of nearly 300 people, gathered in the Stadttheater in Solothurn.And it is precisely this that is the engine of change.Dictatorships know this well, since they prohibit authors from expressing themselves freely. “

Two novels at Slatkine

In addition to the fact that the three Romand authors who won this year live in Lausanne, two of their novels have been published by Slatkine, a great recognition for this publishing house, created in 1964 in Geneva.

Fanny Desarzens, 30 years old this year, is awarded for her first novel “Galel” (Slatkine), which evokes a friendship in the mountains. The young woman told Keystone-ATS, before going on stage, that she felt “very honored and very proud. And at the same time, it’s funny to have all this light on you”.

“I prefer silence, which is very present in my writing. So I hope that mine, of silence, speaks a little for me”. In her speech of thanks, she then noted that she “prefers the written word to proclaimed speeches”.

“The Wife” (Zoé), a magnificent novel about an expat in Gaza, was already nominated for several French prizes last fall. Its author Anne-Sophie Subilia told Keystone-ATS ahead of the awards show, “I’m nervous and on cloud nine.” For her, “receiving a Swiss literature prize represents a huge event in my life as a writer.”

Eugene and “His letter to my dictator” (Slatkine) allows a dive into a Romania that has disappeared: “Now that the book exists, that it has entered bookstores, I am very touched by this distinction, confided the author to Keystone-ATS Friday afternoon.

Returning to his book, Eugène explains: “Writing this letter was not easy. I am nevertheless addressing someone whom I despise (note: Nicolae Ceaușescu, the dictator at the head of communist Romania in 1965 1989). Like I couldn’t say to my boy, ‘sorry this afternoon I can’t play in the park with you, because I’m writing to a dictator’.”

And he continues: “I wrote this letter at night, when I had nothing else to do. In the same way, it was excluded for me to apply for a writing grant. Impossible to ask for help money to write to a bastard…”.

Link to migration and multilingualism

Eugène comes from Romania and Anne-Sophie Subilia from Belgium. And this is perhaps also what connects the 80 writers, invited for three days in Solothurn: a link to migration and multilingualism. Which goes beyond the four national languages, noted Nathalie Widmer, co-director of the event for its first edition with Rico Engesser, with an emphasis on authors from different diasporas.

Nearly 150 meetings relating to prose, poetry, spoken word, graphic novels, children’s literature and translation are on the program until Sunday. Some of the meetings can be followed online.

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