28^th Leukerbad International Literary Festival

Collaborations

Every year, around a dozen domestic and foreign institutions contribute to a rich, high-caliber program at Leukerbad Literary Festival though joint projects, collabo­rations and contact. In 2015, the Odessa Literary Festival was first staged—a co-production by the Leukerbad International Literary Festival and the International Literature Festival Berlin.

Our Network

LCB Literarisches Colloquium Berlin

Künstlerprogramm des DAAD Berlin

CTL Centre de traduction littéraire de Lausanne

Spycher: Literaturpreis Leuk

Schulhausroman / Roman d’école

Palais Valais

Fondation Rilke

Médiathèque Sion

MEEL

Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin

Internationales Literaturfestival Odessa

Kultur Wallis / Culture Valais

Reportagen

ZAP Brig / Orell Füssli

Strange things are happening on Sternengässi: 33 Young Poets from Valais and Zurich

Following last year’s bilingual reading with Valais teenagers from Monthey and Leukerbad, young authors will also be part of the 2024 Festival. The Galerie St. Laurent has been transformed into a ‘talent shed’ and in this ‘shed’ students from the Leukerbad high school (teacher Stéphanie Dias) together with students from a Zurich primary school (teacher Benedikt Rüttimann) will present their work. The connecting thread: both project classes have let the very different surroundings they live in inspire their work. In other words, they’ve been inspired by the names of local streets and squares, by enormous central train stations or compact mountain stations, by posh spa guests or ordinary passersby...

Here, as a sample, is a brand new Leukerbad mini-fable:
Very strange things are happening right now on Star Street, terrible things like kidnappings and murders, often even in broad daylight. Once I saw a man in a clown costume carrying an axe. I ran away but he followed me all the way down Star Street, getting closer and closer. Luckily, I met my friend Ruben, who told me about Moon Street, where you are safe from all evil because the moon protects you there. So we ran to Moon Street. The clown, however, was caught and put to death, and now Star Street is also safe.

And here is the bilingual ‘The King of Croissants’, written in French and German by to primary school students from Zurich and Martigny:
There once was a hamster named Timmy. He lived in Zurich. Timmy wanted to eat croissants, so he escaped from his cage. In town, the hamster stole all the croissants by threatening the bakers with a baguette. The bakers were frightened, of course, and gave Timmy all their croissants, even those of various flavors like: strawberry, blueberry, orange, and many more. Then the hamster Timmy returned home peacefully with 100,000 croissants. He ate them all and has been called the King of all Croissants ever since.

The Leukerbad high school students will be joined by the Valais writer Rolf Hermann, the Zurich primary school students by the writer Perikles Monioudis, and in the course of a class exchange in Valais (Martigny), they will be joined by the poets Noémi Schaub and Natacha Mbangila.

This project is organized by the Palais Valais association, in cooperation with the young writers’ laboratory JULL in Zurich and the Leukerbad Literature Festival. This lively group reading will be introduced by the Leukerbad school principal Juventa Zengaffinen and Councilor Ralph Lorenz. Moderator: Richard Reich.

Spycher: Leuk Literary Prize

Awarded annually by the Schloss Leuk Foundation, the Spycher: Leuk Literature Prize is exceptional: the prizewinners are invited to Leuk for five years.

Also exceptional are the many wonderful friendships with the place and the people that result from the prize. Felicitas Hoppe has visited Leuk regularly for years and made an enduring literary declaration of love to this village in her story, The Best Place in the World. During an extended stay here in Leuk, the 2020 laureate Radka Denemarková, not only wrote a new novel, but also make made friends among Leuk residents. Thomas Hettche’s most recent novel Sinkende Sterne (Falling Stars) is set in Valais. There are many other examples of encounters, inspiration, and appreciation made possible by this literary prize.

The cooperation between the Spycher: Leuk Literature Prize and the Leukerbad Literary Festival will continue this year as well. Two previous winners of this prize, Joanna Bator and Thomas Hettche, will be present at the Festival.

Winners of the Spycher: Leuk Literature Prize are: Zsófia Bán, Lukas Bärfuss, Joanna Bator, Marcel Beyer, John Burnside, Mircea Cărtărescu, Radka Denemarková, Ulrike Draesner, Gerhard Falkner, Lavinia Greenlaw, Durs Grünbein, Felicitas Hoppe, Stefan Hertmans, Thomas Hettche, Michael Hofmann, Barbara Honigmann, Helena Janeczek, Abbas Khider, Barbara Köhler (1959–2021), László Krasznahorkai, Thomas Lehr, Sibylle Lewitscharoff, Martin Mosebach, Marie NDiaye, Ulrich Peltzer, Michael Roes, Daniel de Roulet, Gilles Rozier, Judith Schalansky, Katharina Schultens, Michail Schischkin, Aleš Šteger, Alissa Walser, Adam Zagajewski (1945–2021).

The jury, which is comprised of Thomas Geiger, Sabine Dörlemann, and Christian Döring will nominate the new prizewinner in June.