Rebecca Gisler (born 1991) is a Swiss author and translator.
Gisler was born in Zürich and studied at the Swiss Literature Institute in Biel and at the University of Paris 8. A multilingual author, she writes both prose and poetry. Although she grew up in Zurich, Gisler usually writes in French, her mother tongue. She also initially wrote her debut novel D'oncle in French. While she was still working on the first draft, she first translated a passage and then the entire novel into German herself. The translation work sometimes felt like she was writing the text a second time, she says. [1]
Gisler's debut novel is about an uncle, his house in Brittany, and the visit of his niece and nephew. The novel is told from the niece's perspective; she observes the uncle and circles around him, describing his character and actions and exploring his idiosyncrasies.
The book has been widely praised in the press. Reviewer Roman Bucheli wrote in the NZZ that the bizarre stories in Gisler's debut novel seem to conceal a trauma. "Only gradually does one realize that a second melody resonates in the hilarity, albeit in a minor key, and that every room in this uncle's house has a false floor." [2]
D'oncle was extensively reviewed in the francophone media, from Libération to Le Temps. It was also nominated for several literary prizes, and in 2022 won the Swiss Literature Prize awarded by the Federal Office of Culture. [3]
It was published in English translation by Peirene Press in 2024. [4] [5]
Shmuel Yosef Agnon was an Austro-Hungarian-born Israeli novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew literature. In Hebrew, he is known by the acronym Shai Agnon. In English, his works are published under the name S. Y. Agnon.
Leah Goldberg or Lea Goldberg was a prolific Hebrew-language poet, author, playwright, literary translator, illustrater and painter, and comparative literary researcher.
Johanna Louise Spyri was a Swiss author of novels, notably children's stories. She wrote the popular book Heidi. Born in Hirzel, a rural area in the canton of Zürich, as a child she spent several summers near Chur in Graubünden, the setting she later would use in her novels.
Banana Yoshimoto is the pen name of Japanese writer Mahoko Yoshimoto. From 2002 to 2015, she wrote her name in hiragana.
Bernhard Schlink is a German lawyer, academic, and novelist. He is best known for his novel The Reader, which was first published in 1995 and became an international bestseller. He won the 2014 Park Kyong-ni Prize.
Yōko Tawada is a Japanese writer currently living in Berlin, Germany. She writes in both Japanese and German. Tawada has won numerous literary awards, including the Akutagawa Prize, the Tanizaki Prize, the Noma Literary Prize, the Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature, the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, the Goethe Medal, the Kleist Prize, and a National Book Award.
Ágota Kristóf was a Hungarian writer who lived in Switzerland and wrote in French. Kristóf received the "European prize" from ADELF, the association of Francophone authors, for Le Grand Cahier. It was followed by two sequels which are collectively The Notebook Trilogy. She won the 2001 Gottfried Keller Award in Switzerland and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 2008.
Hermann Burger was a Swiss poet, novelist and essayist. In his creative works Burger often focused on society's lonely outsiders and, increasingly, the inevitability of death. His virtuosity in applying literary styles and use of thorough research are significant features of many of his publications.
Christian Kracht is a Swiss author. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages.
Syrian literature is modern literature written and orally performed in Arabic by writers from Syria since the independence of the Syrian Arab Republic in 1946. It is part of the historically and geographically wider Arabic literature. Literary works by Syrian authors in the historical region of Syria since the Umayyad era are considered general Arabic literature. In its historical development since the beginnings of compilations of the Quran in the 7th century and later written records, the Arabic language has been considered a geographically comprehensive, standardized written language due to the religious or literary works written in classical Arabic. This sometimes differs considerably from the individual regionally spoken variants, such as Syrian, Egyptian or Moroccan spoken forms of Arabic.
Mikhail Pavlovich Shishkin is a Russian-Swiss writer and the only author to have won the Russian Booker Prize (2000), the Russian National Bestseller (2005), and the Big Book Prize (2010). His books have been translated into 30 languages. He also writes in German.
Angelika Overath is a German author and journalist.
Georgi Gospodinov Georgiev is a Bulgarian writer, poet and playwright. His novel Time Shelter received the 2023 International Booker Prize, shared with translator Angela Rodel, as well as the Strega European Prize. His novel The Physics of Sorrow received the Jan Michalski Prize and the Angelus Award. His works have been translated into 25 languages.
Philipp Tingler is a Swiss and German writer, journalist, economist and philosopher. His literary and essayistic work is an ironic comedy of manners, focused on minds and styles in the upper realms of society.
The literature of Luxembourg is little known beyond the country's borders, partly because Luxembourg authors write in one or more of the three official languages, partly because many works are specifically directed to a local readership. Furthermore, it was not until the 19th century that the literature of Luxembourg began to develop in parallel with growing awareness of the country's national identity following the Treaty of Paris (1815) and the Treaty of London (1867).
Benedict Wells is a German-Swiss novelist.
Jennifer Croft is an American author, critic and translator who translates works from Polish, Ukrainian and Argentine Spanish. With the author Olga Tokarczuk, she was awarded the 2018 Man Booker International Prize for her translation of Flights. In 2020, she was awarded the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing for her autofictional memoir Homesick.
Irena Brežná is a Slovak-Swiss writer, journalist and human rights activist writing in German.
Noëlle Revaz is a Swiss author, who writes in French. She is best known for her first novel, Rapport aux bêtes, which won several literary awards, including the Schiller Prize, the Prix Marguerite Audoux, the Prix Lettres Frontière, and the Henri Gaspoz Prize, and has been adapted for stage and film.
Kim de l'Horizon is a Swiss nonbinary novelist, playwright and thespian. In 2022, they won the German Book Prize and the Swiss Book Prize for their debut novel Blutbuch.