29^th Leukerbad International Literary Festival

Festival Focus

This year’s festival focuses:
Arab Focus
Anna Świrszczyńska: “A poetic reportage”
Human rights work from exile: “Memorial” as a guest in Leukerbad
“Vanished Places”—a Valaisian Project of the Leukerbad International Literary Festival
“Seinetwegen”: Translation Colloquium with Zora del Buono

Arab Focus

The “Tales from 1001 Nights,” the flying carpet, the genie in the bottle—are enchanting stories from the Arab narrative tradition that have a firm foothold in our collective imagination. But what about contemporary Arabic literature? It is, in fact, impossible to speak of a “single” Arabic literature; Arabic-language authors around the globe portray the world of today in their writing and refer to their rich tradition as well as to political and social developments. And yet, only a handful of their works are available in bookshops and there is less and less discussion of their recent titles. To remedy this, the Leukerbad International Literary Festival has established a partnership with Litprom and the Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2025 and invited three writers who have won the prize or were nominated to the shortlist.

Based in Abu Dhabi, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award is one of the most prestigious and most richly endowed prizes of the Arab world. Its goal is to honor the work of scholars and writers who have made important contributions to contemporary literature, the social sciences, culture, and the transmission of knowledge. Litprom will coordinate the activities in the Germanosphere. The collaboration with the Leukerbad International Literary Festival is thanks to the efforts of Mustafa Al-Slaiman, who has moderated and interpreted for the festival for several years.

Anna Świrszczyńska (1909–1984)
“A poetic reportage”

The Nobel Prize winner for literature Czesław Miłosz wrote about Anna Świrszczyńska’s volume of poetry Building the Barricade about the Warsaw Uprising of 1944: “This volume occupies a special place both in Polish poetry and in world literature as a poetic reportage of an event that is one of the great tragedies of the 20^th century.”
Peter Oliver Loew, Director of the German Poland Institute and Professor at TU Darmstadt, has translated Anna Świrszczyńska’s poems into German. In conversation with publisher Christian Ruzicska, he will introduce the poet and her work.

Human rights work from exile: “Memorial”, the winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, as a guest in Leukerbad

The treatment of Memorial is exemplary of the Putin regime’s increasing repression of independent voices in Russian civil society: the work of the organisation, which has been dedicated to investigating Soviet state crimes and documenting human rights violations since 1989, has been increasingly restricted for some time. In 2016, Memorial was declared a “foreign agent” and had to submit to strict conditions and controls.
On 28 February 2022, shortly after Russia launched its major attack on Ukraine, the organisation and its Moscow Human Rights Centre were finally declared illegal and dissolved by court order. Many employees were forced to leave the country.
But Memorial lives on—currently in 13 international branches and also in the organisation Future Memorial founded by Irina Scherbakowa. In December 2022, Memorial was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. At the Leukerbad Literature Festival, Memorial co-founder, Germanist and historian Sherbakova, who has been living in exile in Berlin since 2022, talks to Karl Schlögel and Kerstin Holm about the current situation of Memorial and Russian civil society.

About Memorial

Coming to terms with Soviet history
The foundation of Memorial dates back to 1987. The “Memorial Society” has been in existence since January 1989, and the name refers to the memorials that were established throughout the Soviet Union at that time. The objective at the time: a memorial to the victims of political repression in the Soviet Union—and thus a symbolic completion of the political reorganisation process of Perestroika.
It soon became clear that in order to set up a memorial site, the perpetrators and victims first had to be named—and this turned out to be time-consuming historical research work. Today, Memorial has unrivalled scientific expertise and a database on political repression in the Soviet Union, as well as its own museums and libraries.

Work today
This reappraisal is anything but complete. However, Memorial has long since expanded its work in the sense of a “historical-educational” approach: the historical work on political persecution in the Soviet Union and the human rights work on current Russian cases are inextricably linked. In terms of political education, Memorial also aims to sensitise young people in particular to the problematic interrelationships between the state, society and the individual.

Political pressure and persecution
Even before the ban, Memorial’s work had been severely restricted for at least ten years. An “agent law” passed in 2012 was tightened further in 2020: this not only turned organisations into “foreign agents” that—like Memorial—received donations from abroad, but also individuals under “foreign influence”—a completely arbitrary definition. A further state register records those who are connected to “foreign agents”. For those affected, this stigmatisation means, for example, that they can no longer work in state educational institutions. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in 2022 that this law is contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights. However, Russia does not recognise the rulings of the ECHR and withdrew from the Council of Europe in March 2022.
In a joint statement with other German non-governmental organisations, the PEN Centre Germany described Memorial as the “moral backbone of Russian civil society” and as an organisation that “seeks reconciliation within its own society and with its neighbours”. By banning the organisation, the Russian state is preventing “the confrontation with its own history of injustice”.

memo.site

“Vanished Places”—a Valaisian Project of the Leukerbad International Literary Festival

Valais is replete with “vanished places”—place that were once important fixed orientation points in daily life and are now abandoned, dilapidated, or no longer exist at all: hotels and restaurants, some situated in central locations, that now stand silent and empty yet still influence their environment. Factory buildings that are now disused because a new and larger home was found for the production plants or because production ceased altogether. Sites on which construction had begun but was not completed, giving rise to many hopes then dashing them. Roads overgrown with grass that were once important transportation arteries. All these places bear witness to history and conceal stories that merit telling.
The Leukerbad International Literary Festival joins the Valaisian writers Rolf Hermann and Céline Zufferey in search of the traces of vanished places in Valais—places that in the recent or distant past were meeting points for local inhabitants, for the newly arrived, and for travelers. They were also places of aspirations that have been reduced to abandoned buildings, lost promises, and (far too) ambitious projects and now serve as points of departure for stories, modern legends, or literary notes.
The goal of the “Vanished Places” project is to write these stories and in doing so to prompt an engagement with local history and the creation of contemporary literature.
At the Leukerbad International Literary Festival, both writers will read from their stories and report on their research. Rolf Hermann took on the Torrenthotel, empty since 2007; Céline Zufferey followed the former course of the Rhone River—called the ‘Rotten’ in Valaisian German.

From Dieser herrliche Erden­fleck by Rolf Hermann:
«Ungläubig starre ich auf den Bild­schirm. Meine Beine wippen, die Knie stossen hart gegen die Tisch­platte. Plötzlich bin ich nervös. Wer meldet sich jetzt bei wem? Die Verkäufer:innen bei mir oder ich mich bei den Verkäufer:innen? Muss das noch analog unterschrieben werden? Kann der Deal noch platzen? Ist das Gebäude renovations­bedürftig? Wie steht es um die Küchen­ausstattung, die Fritteusen? Kann ich mit einer Lesung eine Fritteuse quer­finanzieren? Wie oft müsste ich auftreten? Dreimal? Zehnmal? Hundertmal? Wie viele Fritteusen brauche ich überhaupt?
Ich lege die glühende Stirn auf die kühle Tisch­platte. Was habe ich bloss getan?
Vor einer Stunde stand ich auf und beschloss: Jetzt wird angefangen. Ich setzte mich an den Küchen­tisch und googelte das Hotel. Sofort überschwemmten Links den Bildschirm. Ein Bild sprang mir ins Auge: 1972 Leukerbad Hotel Torrenthorn / Kaufen. Ich klickte drauf. Darunter stand: Angebot, 5 Franken. Das darf doch nicht wahr sein, dachte ich. Ein Hotel für den Preis eines Raclette? Unmöglich!
Und genau in diesem Moment verschob sich etwas in mir. Ich spürte, wie eine tief­sitzende Sehn­sucht in meinem Innern erwachte. Unzählige Pommes- und Ovomaltine-Momente, die ich mit meinen Brüdern und Eltern auf der Terrasse des Torrent­hotels erlebt hatte, keimten tief in mir auf, bahnten sich einen Weg, erstrahlten in unwiderstehlichem Glanz.
Ein geradezu paradiesischer Zustand: Unsere kuhähnlich kauenden Münder, die voll sind mit dem salzig-süsslichen Brei; unsere Augen, die über eine Landschaft schweifen, die wir uns kaum erhabener vorstellen konnten; und mein jüngster Bruder, der neben mir sitzt und der den Satz sagt, der uns allen aus der Seele spricht: «Das isch där schönscht Platz va där Wält.»
Und so geschah, was geschehen musste: Der Sehnsuchts-Autopilot übernahm. Er liess mich ein Benutzer­konto anlegen und die erforderlichen Felder ausfüllen – Name, Adresse, Kredit­informationen, E-Mail. Dann gab ich mein Gebot ab, und schon erschien die Bestätigung: Sie haben das Objekt erfolgreich ersteigert. Voilà. So schnell wird man heute Hotel­besitzer.»

From Dans les méandres disparus du Rhône by Céline Zufferey:
«Dans le sous-sol de ma maison, l’eau monte et descend. C’est un espace inoccupé, qui fait la superficie du logement, on ne s’y tient que courbé, on y accède par une porte au fond du garage, plus basse qu’une porte normale, elle n’a pas de poignée, c’est comme l’entrée d’une grotte. Je n’y ai pas pénétré souvent, je suis surtout restée sur le seuil. Je me souviens regarder mon père s’aventurer là-dedans plié en deux, avec de hautes bottes pendant que j’éclairais son chemin à la lampe de poche. Notre maison n’a jamais été inondée, alors je n’avais pas peur de cette eau si proche, ça m’amusait plutôt de savoir que sous ma chambre, sous les catelles propres et le salon bien rangé, il y avait de l’eau qu’il fallait surveiller.
(…) Je ne me rendais pas compte que le fleuve charriait autant d’alluvions, à quel point notre paysage était minéral, alors que je vis tout près d’une gravière. A chaque fois que j’y passais, je m’interrogeais sur ses tas de sable, tout proches de la route, plus hauts que notre voiture. Je ne comprenais pas pourquoi ils les laissaient à l’air libre, la pluie ne risquait-elle pas de les faire s’écrouler ? J’ai l’impression de ne l’avoir jamais vu en marche, c’était une chose encore mystérieuse, une sorte d’usine immobile entourée de monticules qui semblaient avoir toujours la même taille. Je n’ai jamais pensé qu’ils étaient tirés du Rhône, pour empêcher justement que l’eau ne monte au-dessus du niveau de ma maison. (…)
Pour se prémunir des alluvions qui font s’élever le niveau du fleuve on ne compte pas que sur les gravières. En resserrant son lit, on a augmenté son courant et c’est le Rhône lui-même qui se charge de débarrasser loin de la vallée les galets, limons et argiles qu’il transporte depuis les montagnes. Le fleuve devient rapide, dangereux, attention ne pas l’approcher, si on tombe on est emportés, et alors il n’y a plus rien à faire. Les corrections et rétrécissements ont fait du Rhône un non-lieu, l’eau ne fait que passer et n’abrite plus rien.»

Do you also have stories to tell about the Torrenthotel or the Rhone? Tell us at the festival or send an e-mail to Anna Kulp (kulp@literaturfestival.ch).

“Seinetwegen”: Translation Colloquium with Zora del Buono

Translators are not only especially attentive readers, they’re also vital mediators between languages and cultures. Since 2006, in cooperation with the Literary Colloquium Berlin (LCB) and with the support of the Swiss Cultural Foundation Pro Helvetia, the Centre de traduction littéraire Lausanne (CTL) and Palais Valais, the Leukerbad International Literary Festival has been inviting translators of Swiss German-language literature to Valais.
This two-day workshop is always centered on a recent work by a Swiss author: this year it is Zora del Buono’s novel Seinetwegen (For His Sake), which won the 2024 Swiss Book Prize. After completing her architectural studies, Zora del Buono worked as a site manager in post-unification Berlin and is the arts editor and co-founder of the journal mare.
Six translators have rendered passages from Seinetwegen into their respective languages and worked with the author during the workshop to solve translation conundrums and address stylistic challenges. The participants will present the results of the workshop and discuss their work as cultural border crossers at the Leukerbad Literary Festival.

Michel Bolwerk works as a translator and editor in Amsterdam and has translated works by Romy Hausmann, Uwe Wittstock, and Zora del Buono into Dutch.

Carla Imbrogno lives in Buenos Aires and specializes in translating Swiss literature into Spanish including works by Mariella Mehr, Ilma Rakusa, Levin Westermann, and Gianna Molinari.

Hafiza Kuchkarova from Tashkent, has translated Jenny Erpenbeck, Franz Hohler, Dorothee Elmiger, Daneil Glattauer, and Sasha Marianna Salzmann, among others, into Uzbek.

Anna Lindberg, born in 1982, is a writer and translator of Monika Rinck, Emine Sevgi Özdamar and Joan Didion, among others, into Swedish. Her biggest project as a photographer was the exhibition “The Invisible People”, which portrayed literary translators.

Benjamin Pécoud is a translator living in Lausanne. He has translated Ariane Koch and Zora del Buono, among others, into French and is a member of the writers’ collective ‘Caractères mobiles’.

Imogen Taylor was born in London and has lived in Berlin since 2001. She translates from German and French into English including works by Julia Franck, Dana Grigorcea, Sasha Marianna Salzmann, and Judith Schalansky.

Jürgen Jakob Becker is the Programming Director of the Literary Colloquium Berlin and the Managing Director of the Deutsche Übersetzerfond. He heads the translation colloquia at the Literary Festival.

Kerstin Martinez Griese is a student at the Centre de traduction littéraire in Lausanne and will assist with the workshop.

Previous guest authors of the Translation Colloquium include Peter Weber (2006), Michel Mettler (2007), Lukas Bärfuss (2008), Katharina Faber (2009), Rolf Lappert (2010), Melinda Nadj Abonji (2011), Christoph Simon (2012), Arno Camenisch (2013), Jonas Lüscher (2014), Peter Stamm (2015), Monique Schwitter (2016), Urs Mannhart (2017), Nora Gomringer (2018), Gianna Molinari (2019), Ariane Koch (2022), Yael Inokai (2023), Levin Westermann (2024).