Monique Schwitter and Anna Larcher

Foto: Lou Aurel

Monique Schwitter, born in Zurich, writes prose and dialogue-based works. She studied directing and acting in Salzburg and performed for many years at renowned theaters in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland before publishing her first book in 2005, Wenn’s schneit beim Krokodil (When It Snows at the Crocodile), a collection of short stories that won, among others, the Robert Walser Prize. Her work has been widely translated and recognized with numerous awards. Her most recent novel, Eins im Andern (One in Another), was shortlisted for the German Book Prize in 2015 and won the Swiss Book Prize. It has been translated into a dozen languages. Monique lived in Hamburg from 2005 to 2024. She taught creative writing at institutions such as HAW Hamburg and the Biel Institute of Literature. As president of the Free Academy of the Arts in Hamburg, she focused on interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of text, sound, and image, as well as language and performance.

Foto: Angela Regius

Anna Larcher, born in 1996, constantly tries her hand at speed-reading to keep up with her workload as an editor at Unionsverlag and as a master’s student in German Studies at the University of Zurich. She spent a year studying Creative Writing and Cultural Journalism at the Hildesheim Institute of Literature and has participated in various writing workshops in Switzerland and Austria over the past few years. In 2023, she attended the Klagenfurt Literature Course as a scholarship recipient. Her prose has been published in literary magazines and anthologies, most recently her short story Cure in the Diogenes anthology Holidays by the Sea. She lives in Zurich and is currently working on her debut novel, In Winter, Bees Don’t Fly (working title).