Urs Widmer Explained

Birth Date:	21 May 1938
Birth Place:	Basel, Switzerland
Occupation:	Novelist, essayist, playwright
Language:	German
Nationality:	Swiss
Period:	1968–2013

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

Biography

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], .
My father's book ("Das Buch des Vaters"). Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books [2011], .
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], .
The blue soda siphon ("Der blaue Siphon"). Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books [2014], .
In the Congo ("Im Kongo"). Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books [2015], .
Mr Adamson ("Herr Adamson"). Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books [2015], .

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]

Notes and References

Web site: Deviation From The Norm, or The Realistic Fantast . New Books in German . Roman Bucheli . Spring 2014 . 35 . 3 April 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130501222821/http://www.new-books-in-german.com/english/131/94/94/129002/design1.html . 1 May 2013 . dmy-all .
Web site: Der Schriftsteller Urs Widmer gestorben . . Roman Bucheli . 3 April 2014 . de . 3 April 2014.