Zsuzsanna Gahse ( Vajda; born 27 June 1946) is a Hungarian-born German-language writer and translator who lives in Switzerland.

Life and works

Gahse is the daughter of Hungarian parents and Hungarian is her mother tongue. Her family fled to the West after the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

and settled in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, where Gahse attended high school and learnt the German language. She began publishing literary works in 1969, and from 1978, encouraged by her mentor

Helmut Heißenbüttel Helmut Heißenbüttel (21 June 1921 – 19 September 1996) was a German novelist and poet. Among Heißenbüttel's works are ''Das Textbuch'' (''The Textbook'') and ''Marlowe's Ende'' (''Marlowe's End''). He received the important Georg Büchner Pri ...

, translating works from Hungarian. She has published German translations of works by István Eörsi,

Péter Esterházy Péter Esterházy (14 April 1950 – 14 July 2016) was a Hungarian writer. He was one of the best known Hungarian and Central European writers of his era. He has been called a "leading figure of 20th century Hungarian literature", his books being ...

Péter Nádas Péter Nádas (born 14 October 1942) is a Hungarian writer, playwright, and essayist. Biography He was born in Budapest into a Jewish family, the son of László Nádas (originally Nussbaum) and Klára Tauber. After the takeover of the Hunga ...

and

Zsuzsa Rakovszky Zsuzsa Rakovszky (born 4 December 1950) is a Hungarian translator and writer. Her surname also appears as Rakovsky. She was born in Sopron and earned a teaching certificate in Hungarian and English from the School of English and American Studi ...

, as well as producing a range of essays and fiction under her own name. From 1989 to 1993 she was a lecturer at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...

. In 1996, she lectured in poetry at the

University of Bamberg The University of Bamberg (german: Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg) in Bamberg, Germany, specializes in the humanities, cultural studies, social sciences, economics, and applied computer science. Campus The university is mainly housed in ...

. Today she lives mainly in

Müllheim Müllheim ( High Alemannic: ''Mille'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It belongs to the district Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald. Müllheim is generally considered to be the center of the region known as Markgräflerland. History ...

, in the Swiss Canton of

Thurgau Thurgau (; french: Thurgovie; it, Turgovia), anglicized as Thurgovia, more formally the Canton of Thurgau, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts and its capital is Frauenfeld. Thurgau is part ...

. Zsuzsanna Gahse is a member of the

PEN Center PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internation ...

s in Germany and Switzerland, as well as the authors' association Die Kogge. In 2019, she has been awarded this year's Swiss Grand Prix Literature for her life's work.

Prizes and awards

* 1983

Aspekte-Literaturpreis The Aspekte-Literaturpreis (''Aspekte'' Literature Prize) is awarded annually for the best debut novel written in German, as judged by a panel of writers, critics, and scholars. The prize is sponsored by the ZDF television network through its arts ...

* 1990 Literaturpreis der Stadt Stuttgart * 1993 City of

Zug , neighboring_municipalities = Cham, Baar, Walchwil, Steinhausen, Unterägeri , twintowns = Fürstenfeld (Austria), Kalesija (Bosnia-Herzegowina) Zug (Standard German: , Alemannic German: ; french: Zoug it, Zugo r ...

Prize * 1999 Tibor-Déry-Preis * 2004

Bodensee-Literaturpreis Bodensee-Literaturpreis (Lake Constance Literature Prize) is a literary prize awarded in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The city of Überlingen has been awarding the Lake Constance Literature Prize since 1954. The foundation of this municipal litera ...

* 2006

Adelbert von Chamisso Prize The Adelbert von Chamisso Prize (German ''Adelbert-von-Chamisso-Preis'') was a German literary award established in 1985, given to a work whose author's mother tongue is not German, as was the case for Adelbert von Chamisso. It was offered by the R ...

* 2009 Chamisso-Poetikdozentur * 2010

Johann-Heinrich-Voß-Preis für Übersetzung The Johann Heinrich Voß Prize in Translation (german: Johann-Heinrich-Voß-Preis für Übersetzung) is awarded yearly by the German Academy for Language and Poetry in Darmstadt.

* 2010 Thurgauer Culture Prize * 2011 Made a member of the

Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung The Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (in English German Academy for Language and Literature) was founded on 28 August 1949, on the 200th birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt. It is seated in Darmstadt, ...

, Darmstadt * 2017

Italo-Svevo-Preis The Italo-Svevo-Preis is a German literary prize which has been awarded to outstanding German-language authors since 2001. The prize, named after Italo Svevo, is endowed with 15,000 euros and is made possible by the Hamburg issuing house . Until ...

*2019 Swiss Grand Prix Literature

Works

* ''Zero.'' Munich, 1983 * ''Berganza.'' Munich, 1984 * ''Abendgesellschaft.'' Munich, 1986 * ''Liedrige Stücke.'' Warmbronn, 1987 * ''Stadt, Land, Fluß.'' Munich, 1988 * ''Einfach eben Edenkoben.'' Klagenfurt, 1990 * ''Hundertundein Stilleben.'' Klagenfurt, 1991 * ''Nachtarbeit.'' Warmbronn, 1991 * ''Essig und Öl.'' Hamburg, 1992 * ''Übersetzt.'' Berlin, 1993 (with Renate von Mangoldt) * ''Laune.'' Stuttgart, 1993 * ''Passepartout.'' Klagenfurt, 1994 * ''Kellnerroman.'' Hamburg, 1996 * ''Wie geht es dem Text?'' Hamburg, 1997 * ''Calgary.'' Warmbronn, 1999 * ''Nichts ist wie oder Rosa kehrt nicht zurück.'' Hamburg, 1999 * ''Wörter, Wörter, Wörter!'' Göttingen, 1999 (with Stefana Sabin and

Valentin Braitenberg Valentino Braitenberg (or ''Valentin von Braitenberg''; 18 June 1926 – 9 September 2011) was an Italian neuroscientist and cyberneticist. He was former director at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany. His ...

) * ''Kaktus haben.'' Alpnach Dorf, 2000 (with Christoph Rütimann) * ''durch und durch.'' Vienna, 2004 * ''Instabile Texte.'' Vienna, 2005 (''Volatile Texts: Us Two'', translated by Chenxin Jiang, Dalkey Archive Books 2017, )Excerpt from "Volatile Texts"
/ref> * ''Oh, Roman.'' Vienna, 2007 * ''Erzählinseln. Reden für Dresden.'' Dresden, 2009 * ''Donauwürfel.'' Vienna, 2010 * ''Das Nichts in Venedig.'' Alpnach Dorf, 2010 * ''Südsudelbuch.'' Vienna, 2012 * ''Die Erbschaft.'' Vienna, 2013

References

1946 births Living people Hungarian emigrants to Switzerland 20th-century Swiss writers 20th-century Swiss women writers 21st-century Swiss writers 21st-century Hungarian women writers 20th-century translators 21st-century translators Writers from Budapest University of Tübingen faculty University of Bamberg faculty {{Switzerland-writer-stub