Grand Prix Literatur 2024 goes to Klaus Merz
The Federal Office of Culture (FOC) honours Klaus Merz's Work with Switzerland's highest literary award, the Grand Prix Literatur 2024.
According to the jury, introspection and linguistic condensation are the hallmarks of Klaus Merz's Work, which includes poetry, prose, short stories, plays and children's literature and has been translated in several languages. In addition to the Grand Prix, Merz won numerous other awards during his career: his voice has found an echo far beyond the Swiss borders!
We've selected some titles from the author's backlist:
Jakob schläft - Novel
"This book is a miracle!" - Gunhild Kübler during her speech at the award ceremony for the Hermann Hesse Literature Prize.
This novel tells the story of a family, whose life path lead into abysses and ambushes, and sketches a detailed picture of the 1950s and of the early 1960s.
Aus dem Staub - Poetry
In the words of Merz: "The poetry nudges towards a secret, hopefully without ostentation, rather through the power of its own alphabet."
The poet develops entire life stories choosing short and easy verses that draw images full of colour and light. Klaus Merz always manages to focus on the essential by giving his very personal tone of voice.
LOS - Short story
The whole life of a person - who slowly disappears - and a profound impression of transience emerges from LOS' few episodes and still images.
Unerwarteter Verlauf - Poetry
"The captivating thing about this poetry is its apparent effortlessness, its clarity, its richness of colour." - Heilbronner Stimme, Uwe Grosser
In this volume of poems, the writer is an ironic observer of time and its peculiarities and at the same time a melancholic explorer of life, ageing and memory.
signature - Prose & Poetry
From the Prague Spring to the fall of the Berlin Wall, from the financial crisis to the football World Cup: in the microcosm of a company's history, Klaus Merz tells the reader about the last five decades and also about his 'being in the world'. In the form of poems, Merz takes us 'beyond the fence', deep into the distance.
