30^th Leukerbad International Literary Festival

Authors

Peter Stamm

Switzerland

Peter Stamm, born in 1963 in Weinfelden, worked as a journalist after completing a commercial apprenticeship and studying English, business informatics, psychology and psychopathology for a few semesters; he also wrote radio plays, several of which won awards. His highly acclaimed debut novel Agnes was published in 1998 and has since been translated into 24 languages. With the books he has published in rapid succession since then, he has firmly established himself in German-language literature.
Peter Stamm follows the poetological maxim of keeping explanations out of the narrative and letting images and dialogues speak for themselves. “A great deal in my books happens through perception or through the description of perceptions. It’s not simply a matter of writing; that’s how it is, or at least that’s how I perceive it. I think that, to a certain extent, what gives a text its vitality is the way it evokes sensory impressions in the reader.”
At the Leukerbad Literature Festival, he will explore the magic of beginnings and read from his latest collection of short stories, Auf ganz dünnem Eis, in which, as in Blitzeis (2011), he depicts his characters in search of love or even just change and a little peace. Deutschlandfunk Kultur sums it up: “He doesn’t need much to tell the stories; you’re given very little, and you find yourself wondering, ‘How does he manage to conjure up so much in our minds?’”

Auf ganz dünnem Eis. Short stories. S. Fischer 2025
Eine Fantasie der Zeit. Poetics lecture. S. Fischer 2024
In einer dunkelblauen Stunde. Novel. S. Fischer 2023

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