Swiss Literature Prizes 2018

Le Regard Libre N° 36 - Jonas Follonier

On Thursday February 15, the Swiss National Library in Berne hosted the sixth Swiss Literature Awards ceremony. These consisted of seven literary prizes awarded to authors from the country's four language regions from a shortlist of one hundred and ten books, a special translation prize and the Swiss Grand Prize for Literature. Le Regard Libre was able to attend a beautiful evening under the sign of letters, humanism and aesthetics.

The nine award-winning writers were each able to express themselves as they wished, sharing a little of their personalities with the audience. In particular, those who don't understand Romansh were able to hear the musicality of Dumenic Andry's poems. The audience was also touched by the charisma of Michael Forré, who presented his book Glanz und Schatten. Baptiste Gaillard, whose novel takes the gamble of imagining a world without human beings, left solely to the vagaries of physical reactions. «When a word disappears, what it designates is excluded.»

The Special Translation Prize was awarded to Yla Margit von Dach, an admirable literary and journalistic translator based in Paris and Biel. Her speech was resplendent with intelligence: «je besser die Übersetzung, desto unsichtbarer der Übersetzer.» Similarly, «when an author writes something a little mysterious, it's not up to the translator to remove the mystery.» No mystery, however: with a stirring harmonica interlude and the highlight of the evening, the presentation of the Grand Prix to Anna Felder, this was an evening of transcendence.

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: © Loris S. Musumeci for Le Regard Libre