The Federal Office for Culture said the main prize worth CHF40,000 ($43,306) honours the 78-year old Engadine-born author for her oeuvre which includes poetry as well as prose, novels and children’s books.
Semadeni explores language barriers and plays with them, according to a press release on Thursday.
A characteristic of her writing is its “raw beauty” and the recurring appearance of animals.
The author who writes in the minority Swiss language Romansh and in German has been translated into several European languages.
Semadeni became known with poetry collections such as In mia vita da vuolp (In my life as a fox) in 2010/2017, with her novels Tamangur (2015) and Amur, grosser Fluss (2022) or with Tulpen/Tulipanas (2019).
Previous winners of the Swiss Grand Prix for Literature include Reto Hänny, Martina Clavadetscher, Sybille Berg, Anna Felder, Frédéric Pajak and Adolf Muschg .
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The jury found that her novels and short stories, including Liquida (Liquid) and Tra dove piove e non piove (Where it rains and where it doesn’t), were written with a poetic and musical language, a fine sense of humour and were precise observations of people and nature. The oeuvre of the 80-year old Felder also…
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Franco-Swiss author and graphic artist Frédéric Pajak has been awarded this year’s Swiss Grand Prix for Literature for his life’s work.
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Pascale Kramer, the Geneva novelist based in Paris, received the 2017 Swiss Grand Prize for Literature in Bern on Thursday.
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The 80-year-old writer, who lives in Männedorf, near Zurich, received the Grand Prix for Swiss literature from Interior Minister Alain Berset at the National Library in Bern on Thursday night. The prize comes with a purse of CHF40,000. “With a tirelessly critical spirit, Adolf Muschg penned a rich body of work composed of novels and…
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