Urs Widmer

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Urs Widmer
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Urs Widmer in April 2012
Born (1938-05-21)21 May 1938
Basel, Switzerland
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Occupation Novelist, essayist, playwright
Language German
Nationality Swiss
Period 1968–2013
Notable awards Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden (1976)
Mülheimer Dramatikerpreis (1997)
Schweizer Literaturpreise (2014)

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

References

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