Peter Stamm (born 18 January 1963 in
Münsterlingen) is a
Swiss writer. His prize-winning books have been translated into more than thirty languages. For his entire body of work and his accomplishments in fiction, he was short-listed for the
International Booker Prize in 2013, and in 2014 he won the prestigious
Friedrich Hölderlin Prize.[1]
Life
Peter Stamm grew up in
Weinfelden in the canton of
Thurgau the son of an accountant. After completing primary and secondary school he spent three years as an apprentice accountant and then five as an accountant. He then chose to go back to school at the
University of Zurich taking courses in a variety of fields including
English studies,
Business informatics,
Psychology, and
Psychopathology. During this time he also worked as an intern at a psychiatric clinic. After living for a time in
New York,
Paris, and
Scandinavia he settled down in 1990 as a writer and freelance journalist in
Zurich. He wrote articles for, among others, the
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the
Tages-Anzeiger,
Die Weltwoche, and the satirical
newspaperNebelspalter. Since 1997 he has belonged to the editorial staff of the quarterly literary magazine "Entwürfe für Literatur." He lives in
Winterthur.
Peter Stamm has written prose, radio drama, and plays. He is most known for his cool and sparse writing style. Since 2003 Stamm has been a member of the group "Autorinnen und Autoren der Schweiz" (Authors of Switzerland).
In the fall term 2018 Peter Stamm was the tenth Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor for World Literature[2] at the
University of Bern.
Après Soleil oder Wen der Wind zur Insel trägt, 2002
Der Kuss des Kohaku, 2004
Die Töchter von Taubenhain, 2004
Radio dramas
Ich und die anderen 1991
Die Nacht der Gewohnheiten 1993
In Vitro Zürich 1994
Der letzte Autofahrer 1995
Bildnis eines Knaben mit Peitsche 1995
Editor
Diensttage, 2003
Translations
Susan Musgrave: Träum dir eine Badewanne (English: Dreams are More Real than Bathtubs), 2002
In translation
Several of Stamm's works have been translated into English by
Michael Hofmann, and published in the United States by
Other Press. These include novels Seven Years, Agnes, Unformed Landscape, and On a Day Like This, as well as In Strange Gardens and Other Stories, a collection of short stories.