Helen Meier

Helen Meier (born April 17, 1929 in Mels , canton St. Gallen ; † February 13, 2021 in Trogen , canton Appenzell Ausserrhoden ) was a Swiss writer .

Life

Helen Meier's father was a village school teacher. She attended the teachers' college in Rorschach and then worked as a primary school teacher. After working in England, France and Italy, she studied languages and education at the University of Freiburg . She worked in the refugee aid of the Swiss Red Cross and was a special school teacher in Heiden . In 1984 she was discovered at the Klagenfurt Literature Days, where she received a prize for her story Sensitive to Light . She lived as a freelance writer in Trogenwhere she died in a retirement home in February 2021 at the age of 91.

Helen Meier's prose mainly depicts the inner life of people who suffer from failed lives and unfulfilled love. Another important theme in her works is the experience of aging .

Awards

1984: Ernst Willner grant
1985: Rauris Literature Prize
1985: Prize from the Swiss Schiller Foundation
2000: Prize from the Swiss Schiller Foundation
2000: Contribution to the Pro Helvetia Foundation
2000: Droste Prize
2001: Culture Prize of the Canton of St. Gallen
2017: Culture Prize of the Canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden

Works

Dry meadow. Stories. Ammann, Zurich 1984, ISBN 3-250-10029-3 ; Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-596-25455-8 .
The only object in color. 13 new stories. Ammann, Zurich 1985, ISBN 3-250-01055-3 ; Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-596-29165-8 .
The house at the lake. Stories. Ammann, Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-250-10045-5 ; Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1989, ISBN 3-596-29256-5 .
The laughter. A reading bite. Ammann, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-250-00003-5 .
Live life. Novel. Ammann, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-250-10125-7 ; Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-596-10276-6 .
Thurgau and its people. With photographs by Hans Baumgartner . Huber, Frauenfeld 1990, ISBN 3-7193-1047-7 .
The search for paradise. 36 photographs from the Appenzellerland (with Lukas Hafner). Hafner, Heiden 1991, ISBN 3-9520135-0-1 .
Night book. Stories. Ammann, Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-250-10169-9 .
The Thur. From the source to the mouth. (With Dieter Berke and Heidi Steiger). Huber, Frauenfeld 1992, ISBN 3-7193-1071-X .
The novice. Novel. Ammann, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-250-10253-9 ; Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-596-14057-9 .
Last warning. Stories. Ammann, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-250-10308-X ; Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-518-39901-2 .
Dear voice. Stories. Ammann, Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-250-10412-4 .
Goodbye, Mr. Landammann! Seven encounters with Jacob Zellweger-Zuberbühler . Appenzeller Verlag, Herisau 2001, ISBN 3-85882-324-4 .
Sleepwalking. A story. Ammann, Zurich 2006, ISBN 3-250-60089-X .
Small proofs of friendship. Stories and texts. Xanthippe, Zurich 2014, ISBN 978-3-905795-32-5 .
The agony of the butterfly. Bad stories. Unpublished early texts. Xanthippe, Zurich 2015, ISBN 978-3-905795-46-2 .
Exercise in staggering along the fall. A reader. Edited and provided with a biography of Helen Meier by Charles Linsmayer . Huber, Frauenfeld 2017, ISBN 978-3-7193-1600-6 .
The white bird, the hat and the princess. 23 fairy tales. Illustr. by Verena Monkewitz and ed. by Charles Linsmayer. Xanthippe, Zurich 2019, ISBN 978-3-905795-64-6 .

literature

Rosmarie Zeller: Meier, Helen. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Charles Linsmayer: "Writing means turning the inside out. But in such a way that it still stays inside." Life and work of the Swiss writer Helen Meier. In: Helen Meier: Exercise in staggering along the fall. A reader. Edited and provided with a biography of Helen Meier by Charles Linsmayer. Huber, Frauenfeld 2017, pp. 267–383.

Web links

Publications by and about Helen Meier in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
Literature by and about Helen Meier in the catalog of the German National Library
Helen Meier's archive in the HelveticArchives archive database of the Swiss National Library
Entry about Helen Meier in the lexicon of the Association of Authors of Switzerland
Literature by and about Helen Meier in the WorldCat bibliographic database

Entry in the list of authors ( memo of December 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) of the Bibliomedia Foundation

Short biography and reviews of works by Helen Meier at perlentaucher.de

Individual evidence

↑ Helen Meier. In: Kürschner's German Literature Calendar 2018/2019. Volume II: PZ. Walter de Gruyter , 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-057616-0 , p. 619 f.
↑ Swiss author Helen Meier died at the age of 91 , deutschlandfunkkultur.de, published and accessed on February 13, 2021.
↑ Alessia Pagani: First writer honored. In: Thurgauer Zeitung , May 26, 2017.

personal data
SURNAME	Meier, Helen
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Swiss writer
DATE OF BIRTH	April 17, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH	Mels
DATE OF DEATH	February 13, 2021
Place of death	Trogen AR

[1] Helen Meier. In: Kürschner's German Literature Calendar 2018/2019. Volume II: PZ. Walter de Gruyter , 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-057616-0 , p. 619 f.

[2] Swiss author Helen Meier died at the age of 91 , deutschlandfunkkultur.de, published and accessed on February 13, 2021.

[3] Alessia Pagani: First writer honored. In: Thurgauer Zeitung , May 26, 2017.