Urs Widmer


Urs Widmer was a Swiss novelist, playwright, an essayist, and a short story writer.

Biography

Widmer was born in Basel in 1938, and for many years lived in Zurich. Widmer studied German, French, and history at the universities of Basel and Montpellier. After completing his PhD, he worked briefly as an editor at Suhrkamp Verlag, but left the publishing house during the Lektoren-Aufstand of 1968.
In 2014, Roman Bucheli, Literary Editor of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, said that Widmer:

Works in English translation

  • My mother's lover. Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books,.
  • My father's book. Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books,.
  • On life, death, and this and that of the rest. The Frankfurt lectures on poetics. Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books,.
  • The blue soda siphon. Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books,.
  • In the Congo. Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books,.
  • Mr Adamson. Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books,.

Awards and honors