Christoph Keller (writer)

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Christoph Keller (born December 22, 1963 in St. Gallen ) is a Swiss writer .

Life

Christoph Keller grew up in St. Gallen as the youngest son of Ruth Hämmerle-Keller and Alfons Keller. As with his two older brothers, he was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA type III), an incurable, progressive neurumuscular disease, in 1978. This led to the fact that he is now dependent on the use of a wheelchair. From 1984 to 1991 studied he Slavic and American studies at the Universities of Geneva and Constance ; he completed this course with a master's degree . From 1998 to 2018 he spent mainly in New York, where he also began to write and publish in English. Since his souvenir novel The Best Dancer (2003), his books have repeatedly appeared with his photographs. Keller, who is married to the American poet Jan Heller Levi , now lives as a freelance writer in St. Gallen.

Christoph Keller is a writer of novels , short stories and plays and works as an editor (including Russian short stories and works by the American essayist, poet and activist June Jordan, 1936–2002). He is equally influenced by American and Russian literature; In his works, which often tend towards the absurd , bizarre and satirical , the author makes use of the technique of variation in a playful way.

Together with the Swiss writer Heinrich Kuhn he publishes novels and short prose under the name Keller + Kuhn .

Christoph Keller is a member of the group Authors of Switzerland and the German-Swiss PEN Center .

Awards

  • 1988, 1998 sponsorship award from the city of Sankt Gallen
  • 1988 Invitation to the Ingeborg Bachmann Competition
  • 1989 Prize for Literature from the City of Constance
  • 1989 Contribution to Pro Helvetia
  • 1990–1991 Writer-in-residence at the Stadttheater St. Gallen
  • 1992 Kurt Adler Prize
  • 1994 Prize of the International Lake Constance Conference
  • 1996 Pro Helvetia grant
  • 2004 Work Week Theater Kosmos Bregenz
  • 2004 Schiller Prize from the Zürcher Kantonalbank
  • 2005 Pro Helvetia work grant
  • 2006 Puchheim reader award
  • 2018 Pro Helvetia work grant
  • 2020 Alemannic Literature Prize for the novel The floor beneath your feet

Works

Original editions

  • Gulp. A career . Benziger, Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-545-36458-5 ; Revised new edition: Gulp , Roman. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-596-13440-4 .
  • How is the weather in Boulder? An American story . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 978-3-596-22369-5 .
  • Cold peace . Comedy in four acts, with Christian Hulfeld, Teaterverlag Elgg , 1998, previously appeared in: “Theater Theater”. Anthology, current pieces. Volume 2, Fischer Taschenbuch 11178, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-596-11178-1 .
  • The seat god. Chair variations . Monologue. Isele, Eggingen 1994
  • Bottom line, with Heinrich Kuhn. Econ, Düsseldorf / Vienna 1994
  • I would like the land to be flat . Novel. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1996
  • The blue miracles. Fax novel, with Heinrich Kuhn. Reclam, Leipzig 1997
  • Stray bears under the hell skies. Essays on modern Russian literature . Isele, Eggingen 1997
  • In the state of the joint . A story. Sabon, St. Gallen 2000
  • The best dancer . Memory novel, S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2003
  • A few familiar things . Remise, Winterthur 2003
  • The state of the last . Roman, with Heinrich Kuhn. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-85791-547-5 .
  • A Meaningful Life with Bucket I-VIII , short prose, English, with eight photographs by the author, Birutjatio Press, Sanitiketan, West Bengal, India 2015, ISBN 978-81-930797-0-6 .
  • Everything else comes naturally. Maag & Minetti stories , with Heinrich Kuhn, with drawings by Beni Bischof, Edition Literatur Ostschweiz, St. Gallen 2015, ISBN 3-7291-1148-5 . ISBN 978-3-7291-1148-6
  • Das Steinauge & Galàpagos , a novel and six stories, with six photographs by the author, Edition Isele, Eggingen 2016, ISBN 3-7322-3099-6 ISBN 978-3-7322-3099-0 .
  • A Worrisome State of Bliss and other Manhattan Metamorphoses , short stories, English, with six photographs by the author, Birutjatio Press, Sanitiketan, West Bengal, India 2016, ISBN 978-81-930797-4-4 .
  • A Meaningful Life 2.0 with Primal Matter I-IX , short prose, English, with nine photographs by the author, Birutjatio Press, Sanitiketan, West Bengal, India 2018, ISBN 978-81-930797-9-9 .
  • The ground under your feet. A fantasy (novel). Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2019, ISBN 978-3-85791-880-3 .
  • America the Beautiful & Other Indictments: A Meaningful Life 3.0 , Short Prose, English, A Reprobate / GobQ Book, Portland, OR, USA 2020, ISBN 978-1-64764-361-4 . ( Online )
  • Sound Seekers: File Under Jazz. A Meaningful Life 3.1 , Short Prose, English, A Reprobate / GobQ Book, Portland, OR, USA 2020, ISBN 978-1-64764-391-1 . ( Online )
  • Every cripple is a superhero. Splinters from life on the excursion. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2020, ISBN 978-3-03926-003-4 . ( Online )

Theatrical performances

Radio plays

  • A precious gift , DRS, around 1995
  • Autumn leaves , DRS 2, 1998

As editor and translator

  • Moscow tells . 22 stories. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-596-11659-7 .
  • Petersburg tells . 22 stories. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-596-13236-3 .
  • We're On: A June Jordan Reader , English, ed., With Jan Heller Levi, with an introduction by Rachel Eliza Griffith, Alice James Books, Farmington 2017, ISBN 1-938584-35-X ISBN 978-1-938584- 35-0 .
  • Hip Hops: Poems about Beer, Anthologie (Ed.), In English, Everyman's Library / AA Knopf, New York, 2018, ISBN 1-101-90791-6, ISBN 978-1-101-90791-7 .
  • Russian Stories , Anthology (Ed.), In English, Everyman's Library / AA Knopf, New York, 2019, ISBN 0-525-65603-0 , ISBN 978-0-525-65603-6 .
  • Essential June Jordan , anthology, ed., With Jan Heller Levi, with an introduction by Jericho Brown, Copper Canyon Press, Port Townsend, WA, USA 2021.
As a photographer
  • Eye Catcher , 2006 (exhibition and catalog, gallery art101, New York).
  • Lascaux on 22nd Street , 2008 (exhibition and catalog, gallery art101, New York).
  • Be Kind , 2011 (Exhibition at Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA)

literature

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Keller, Christoph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 22nd, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Gallen