Literaturfestival Zürich (alternative spelling: Zürich Literature Festival, formerly: Openair Literatur Festival Zürich) is an annual week-long international literary festival in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. It enjoys a reputation as one of the "best literary festivals in the world". The main stage of the festival is located in the midst of the sprawling nature of the Old Botanical Garden in Zürich. The Festival is jointly presented by Literaturhaus Zürich and Kaufleuten, the two major institutions for literary events in Zürich. Founder and director of the festival is Swiss conceptual artist and curator

Andreas Heusser Andreas Heusser (born 1976) is a Swiss conceptual artist, cultural entrepreneur and curator based in Zurich and Johannesburg. Education In 2001, Andreas Heusser obtained an intermediate diploma in psychology, which laid the groundwork for his su ...

who is curating the program together with the management team of Kaufleuten and Literaturhaus Zurich. Since 2021, the festival has been held in a hybrid format, with all events streamed live as well. The main program of the festival consists of premieres, performances and readings by international authors. Many world-famous writers have appeared at the festival in recent years, including John Coetzee,

Zadie Smith Zadie Smith (born Sadie; 25 October 1975) is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, ''White Teeth'' (2000), immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She became a tenured professor in the ...

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born Grace Ngozi Adichie; 15 September 1977) is a Nigerians, Nigerian writer of novels, short stories, poem, and children's books; she is also a book reviewer and literary critic. Her most famous works include ''Purple ...

Francis Fukuyama Francis Yoshihiro Fukuyama (; born October 27, 1952) is an American political scientist, political economist, and international relations scholar, best known for his book '' The End of History and the Last Man'' (1992). In this work he argues th ...

Anne Enright Anne Teresa Enright (born 11 October 1962) is an Irish writer. The first Laureate for Irish Fiction (2015–2018) and winner of the Man Booker Prize (2007), she has published eight novels, many short stories, and a non-fiction work called ''Mak ...

Bernardine Evaristo Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo (born 28 May 1959) is an English author and academic. Her novel ''Girl, Woman, Other'' jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's ''The Testaments'', making her the first Black woman to win ...

David Grossman David Grossman (; born January 25, 1954) is an Israeli author. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages. In 2018, he was awarded the Israel Prize for literature. Biography David Grossman was born in Jerusalem. He is the eld ...

Julian Barnes Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with ''The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with ''Flaubert's Parrot'', ''England, England'', and ''Arthu ...

Roxane Gay Roxane Gay (born October 15, 1974) is an American writer, professor, editor, and social commentator. Gay is the author of ''The New York Times'' best-selling essay collection ''Bad Feminist'' (2014), as well as the short story collection ''Ayiti ...

John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and Television presenter, presenter. Emerging from the Footlights, Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinbur ...

, Leïla Slimani,

Junot Díaz Junot Díaz ( ; born December 31, 1968) is a Dominican American writer, creative writing professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a former fiction editor at '' Boston Review''. Central to Díaz's work is the immigrant experience ...

Connie Palmen Aldegonda Petronella Huberta Maria "Connie" Palmen (born 25 November 1955) is a Dutch author. Palmen debuted with the novel ''De wetten'' (1990), published in the United States as ''The Laws'' (1993), translated by Richard Huijing. ''The Laws'' ...

, David Mitchell,

Rebecca Solnit Rebecca Solnit (born 1961) is an American writer and activist. She has written on a variety of subjects, including feminism, the environment, politics, place, and art. Solnit is the author of seventeen books, including '' River of Shadows'', whi ...

John Banville William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, Literary adaptation, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Marcel Proust, Proust, via Vladimir Nabokov, Nabokov", ...

Tsitsi Dangarembga Tsitsi Dangarembga (born 4 February 1959) is a Zimbabwean novelist, playwright and filmmaker. Her debut novel, '' Nervous Conditions'' (1988), which was the first to be published in English by a Black woman from Zimbabwe, was named by the BBC in ...

, Marlon James,

Paul Lynch (writer) Paul Lynch (born 1977) is an Irish people, Irish novelist known for his poetic, lyrical style and exploration of complex themes. He has published five novels and has won several awards, including the 2018 Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award and the ...

Xiaolu Guo Xiaolu Guo (; born 20 November 1973) is a Chinese-born British author, filmmaker and academic. Her writing and films explore migration, social alienation, alienation, memory, personal journeys, feminism, translation and transnational identitie ...

Peter Sloterdijk Peter Sloterdijk (; ; born 26 June 1947) is a German philosopher and cultural theorist. He was a professor of philosophy and media theory at and Rector from 2001 to 2015 of the University of Art and Design Karlsruhe. He co-hosted the German tel ...

Deborah Levy Deborah Levy (born 6 August 1959) is a South African novelist, playwright and poet. She initially concentrated on writing for the theatre – her plays were staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company – before focusing on prose fiction. Her ear ...

Hua Hsu Hua Hsu (born 1977) is an American writer and academic, based in New York City. He is a professor of English at Bard College and a staff writer at ''The New Yorker''. His work includes investigations of immigrant culture in the United States, as ...

, Helen Macdonald,

Teju Cole Teju Cole (born June 27, 1975) is a Nigerian American writer, photographer, and art historian. He is the author of a novella, '' Every Day Is for the Thief'' (2007); a novel, '' Open City'' (2011); an essay collection, ''Known and Strange Things' ...

, Deborah Feldman. The format "Words on Stage - Best of Spoken Word" has also established itself as a permanent feature of the program and closing event of the festival. Part of the festival’s curatorial signature is its interdisciplinary approach. While in its early years this included collaborations with other genres – such as poetic installations, interactive radio plays, singer/songwriter concerts, or performances combining text, dance, and theatre – the current focus lies on a distinctive scenographic concept. Readings are staged in immersive settings where live-stream recordings are embedded as projections within the scenography, creating a spatial dialogue between literature and nature, as well as between physical presence and digital mediation. The aim is to create a "poetic overall experience" that involves all the senses. That is why the festival is often called "Switzerland's most beautiful literary festival".See: *''Das schönste Festival für die Literatur''. In: Züritipp no 27 (Titelgeschichte), July 2022.
''Literarische Weltstars in einzigartiger Naturkulisse erleben''
ftmedien, 8 July 2022.
''Sie bringen den Dschungel auf die Bühne''
''Tages-Anzeiger'', 7 July 2022.

References

External links

*
Website of Literaturhaus Zürich

Website of Kaufleuten

Website of Andreas Heusser
{{DEFAULTSORT:Literaturfestival Zurich Festivals in Switzerland Literary festivals in Switzerland Annual events in Switzerland Culture of Zurich