Solothurn Literature Festival opens with a tribute to Gertrud Wilker
Published: Thursday, May 9th 2024, 09:20
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The 46th edition of the Solothurn Literature Festival opens today, Thursday. The celebration for invited guests will focus on the 100th birthday of Solothurn author Gertrud Wilker. The actual exhibition for the general public starts on Friday.
The author Gertrud Wilker (1924-1984) repeatedly addressed the narrow confines of bourgeois society in her works. Her novel "Nachleben" (1980) was groundbreaking. In it, she addressed lesbian love for the first time in the fiction of German-speaking Switzerland.
At the official opening ceremony for the 46th Solothurn Literature Days, five guests will each present their own cover versions of Wilker's works: "from graphic novels to theater texts, multilingual and multi-layered", as the organizers write in a press release. This homage to Gertrud Wilker thus reflects the breadth of the program for the upcoming Literature Days, the press release continues.
The general public can look forward to two further retrospectives from Friday to Sunday. Author Christoph Geiser will look back on his life's work, which is currently being published in a new edition. Co-editor Moritz Wagner and Geiser will appear together on Friday evening.
Honor for Ruth Schweikert
Ruth Schweikert receives a special tribute. The writer and playwright died of cancer in June 2023 at the age of 57. As a mentor and lecturer at the Swiss Literature Institute in Biel, she supported and accompanied countless writers. And she left behind her own work, in which she repeatedly told the stories of people trying to assert themselves in the wheels of everyday life.
For the 46th Solothurn Literature Days, eight colleagues have now placed audio stations in Solothurn that allow people to "rediscover, mourn or re-encounter", as the organizers of the Literature Days write.
In addition, this year's showcase of Swiss and international literary creation is characterized by current crisis topics. Fear, artificial intelligence (AI), the climate crisis, war, migration and uncertainty have arrived in literature and are reflected in the 140 events on the program.
74 authors and translators from all language regions of Switzerland and abroad are expected to attend. In addition to readings and discussions, there will also be plenty of celebrations, for example at three award ceremonies.
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