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The flags of the Solothurn Literature Days are fluttering on the Kreuzackerbrücke in Solothurn. Until Sunday, the city on the River Aare is celebrating literature, both Swiss and international - and invites you to discover new perspectives through literature. (archive picture)
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Prose writers Julia Weber and Lika Nüssli and poet Sarah Vogler kick off the 48th Solothurn Literature Days. The city on the River Aare will once again be dominated by words from (today) Friday ten o'clock until Sunday.
In terms of content, the Literature Days will be focusing on inward-looking themes, such as autofictional writing or the literary treatment of death and mourning. On Friday afternoon, for example, a panel discussion entitled "Family stories" is planned with several authors who have turned their own childhood into literary material.
On the other hand, the general political climate will be reflected, for example under the title "Writing Evil". Dorothee Elmiger, Michael Hugentobler and Kat Splitterberg will reflect on literature between guilt, power and violence on Friday afternoon. And on Sunday, Elmiger, winner of last year's Swiss and German Book Prize, Professor Claudia Franziska Brühwiler and cultural and literary scholar Elisabeth Bronfen will discuss the current political polarization in the USA.
The organizers of the Literature Days are expecting the book premiere of "Queen of the Night" to be a special highlight. The winner of the Georg Büchner Prize, Lukas Bärfuss, will present his mother book to the public for the first time on Friday evening in Solothurn.
The Solothurn Festival of Literature, which sees itself as both a festival and a showcase for Swiss literary creation, aims to once again focus on the multilingualism of contemporary Swiss literature. And they want to inspire "reflection, doubt and hope", as the editorial in the program says.
In addition, the Federal Office of Culture will present its Grand Prix Literature and the Swiss Literature Awards on Friday evening as part of the Literature Days. On Saturday, the Swiss Children's and Youth Book Prize 2026 will be awarded and on Sunday, the German author and poet Monika Rinck will receive the Solothurn Literature Prize.
The program for the 48th edition includes 150 events until Sunday. 140 guests, authors and translators are traveling from Switzerland and abroad, including the winner of the Austrian Book Prize Dimitré Dinev, the Sudanese Stella Gaitano and Katerina Poladjan from Germany, who has just been awarded the Grand Prize of the German Literature Fund.
15.05.2026, 09:02
