Urs Widmer

Urs Widmer (May 21, 1938 – April 2, 2014) was a Swiss novelist, playwright, an essayist and a short story writer.^[1][2]

Widmer was born in Basel in 1938, and for many years lived in Zurich.^[1] Widmer studied German, French and history at the universities of Basel and Montpellier.^[1] After completing his PhD, he worked briefly as an editor at Suhrkamp Verlag, but left the publishing house during the Lektoren-Aufstand (‘Editors’ Revolt’) of 1968.^[1]

In 2014, Roman Bucheli, Literary Editor of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, said that Widmer:

"is without doubt one of the most significant and versatile talents currently at work in the field of contemporary German-language literature as well as one of the most successful. His sales are invariably in the high five-figure bracket"^[1]

Works in English translation

• My mother's lover (Der Geliebte meiner Mutter). Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books [2011], ISBN 9781906497965.
• My father's book (Das Buch des Vaters). Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books [2011], ISBN 9780857420176.
• On life, death, and this and that of the rest. The Frankfurt lectures on poetics (Vom Leben, vom Tod und vom Übrigen auch dies und das). Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books [2013], ISBN 9780857421005.
• The blue soda siphon (Der blaue Siphon). Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books [2014], ISBN 9780857422118.
• In the Congo (Im Kongo). Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books [2015], ISBN 9780857423153.
• Mr Adamson (Herr Adamson). Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books [2015], ISBN 9780857422323.

Awards and honors

• 1977 Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden, Fernsehabend
• 1992 Preis der SWR-Bestenliste
• 1997 Mülheimer Dramatikerpreis, Top Dogs
• 1998 Heimito von Doderer Prize
• 2001 Bertolt Brecht Literature Prize
• 2002 Großer Literaturpreis der Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste^[1]
• 2013 Friedrich Hölderlin Prize^[1]

References