20 years of Spycher: Leuk Literature Prize

The Spycher: 2021 Leuk Literary Prize will be awarded on Sunday, September 19, at 11:00 a.m. in Leuk Castle. Welcome to Leuk!

We were lucky. At the end of September 2020, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Spycher: Literaturpreis Leuk with an atmospheric word festival shortly before the lockdown. This included readings by Lukas Bärfuss, Felicitas Hoppe, Daniel de Roulet, Ulrich Peltzer, Joanna Bator, Thomas Lehr and Gerhard Falkner. Others had to cancel for health reasons, including Barbara Köhler, who died on January 8, 2021. With the 36 Ansichten des Berges Gorwetsch (36 views of the mountain Gorwetsch), she left us a lasting literary gift.
The anniversary was celebrated in a dignified setting and informal atmosphere with short texts by young people from the Orientierungsschule Leuk, created at a writing workshop with Christine Pfammatter and Rolf Hermann, a panel discussion, music and stimulating conversations with the prize winners.
Finally, on the same weekend, the Spycher: Literaturpreis Leuk was awarded to Helena Janeczek. With her novel Das Mädchen mit der Leica (The Girl with the Leica), she won the most important Italian literary prize, the Premio Strega, in 2018. State Councillor and Head of the Office for Culture, Esther Waeber- Kalbermatten, paid tribute to the Spycher: Literature Prize Leuk in her speech and emphasized its importance for literature.
As a residence prize, the Spycher: Literaturpreis Leuk offers the prize winners the right to stay in Leuk town for two months each year for five years. In the future, in addition to the traditional Spycher: Literature Prize, the Leuk Castle Foundation will enable young authors to stay in Leuk-Stadt and is planning further projects.
Over the course of 20 years, renowned authors have received the Spycher: Literature Prize Leuk: Lukas Bärfuss, Joanna Bator, Marcel Beyer, John Burnside, Mircea Cărtărescu, Radka Denemarková, Gerhard Falkner, Lavinia Greenlaw, Durs Grünbein, Felicitas Hoppe, Stefan Hertmans, Thomas Hettche, Michael Hofmann, Barbara Honigmann, Helena Janeczek, Abbas Khider, Barbara Köhler (1954–2021), László Krasznahorkai, Thomas Lehr, Sibylle Lewitscharoff, Martin Mosebach, Marie NDiaye, Ulrich Peltzer, Michael Roes, Daniel de Roulet, Gilles Rozier, Judith Schalansky, Katharina Schultens, Mikhail Shiskin, Alissa Walser, Adam Zagajewski (1945–2021).

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