Mitra Devi

Mitra Devi (born October 30, 1963 as Beatrice Hänseler in Zurich ; † September 22, 2018 ) was a Swiss writer , filmmaker , journalist and visual artist .

Life

Mitra Devi was born in Zurich as the older of two sisters. Since childhood she has devoted herself to writing and painting. After completing primary and secondary school, she traveled to Israel at the age of 16 , where she lived for two years. After further trips and a six-month stay in India , she attended the F + F School for Art and Design in Zurich and then completed an apprenticeship as a social worker . She worked for several years in an organic nursery and as a marionette maker, gemstone cutter, course leader in creative media and freelance artist, before she exhibited her pictures in a gallery for the first time in her mid-twenties.

In 2001 her first short stories were published in various anthologies . In 2003 her short crime novel Die Bienenzüchterin was published . This was followed by over a dozen novels and other works, including black-humored poetry, numerous short stories , some of which were broadcast as radio plays on Swiss radio SRF , and the five-part series with Zurich private investigator Nora Tabani. In 2007 Mitra Devi received a six-month residency scholarship as a Leipzig city ​​clerk. In 2009 she received a scholarship from the Wiesbaden Literature House together with the German crime writers Tatjana Kruse and Michael Kibler . Shortly before, Mute Guilt appeared, the first case for Nora Tabani. This was followed by Filmriss , Soul Shards , The Sign of Cain and 2012 The Blood Enemy . Several of Mitra Devi's books have been funded with literary contributions, nominated for prizes and awarded. Together with her colleague Petra Ivanov , she edited the crime anthologies Mord in Switzerland , Volumes 1 and 2, and the joint thriller Schockfrost was released in 2017 .

In addition to writing, Mitra Devi was a columnist for the Tages-Anzeiger for several years and worked as a freelance journalist for various newspapers and magazines. Her paintings have been shown in various solo and group exhibitions since 1987. In 2011 she completed her film training and made several self-produced documentaries that were shown in Swiss cinemas and at international film festivals. She also produced ultra-short films that were recorded at short film festivals.

Mitra Devi has taken part in over 600 readings and literary festivals in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and the Canary Islands since 2002 , has appeared at the Frankfurt Book Fair , the Leipzig Book Fair , the literature festival "Zurich reads", the Burgdorfer Krimitagen , the Stuttgart Book Weeks, Mord am Hellweg , the Criminale , the “Swiss Murder Days”, the Solothurn Literature Days , Buch Basel , “Zurich Littéraire” and others. From 2003 she was out and about with her sister, the actress Barblin Leggio, with staged readings from her short crime collections.

Mitra Devi died in September 2018 at the age of 54 after a serious illness.

Works

Detective novels with private investigator Nora Tabani

• Silent guilt. Appenzeller, Herisau 2009, ISBN 978-3-85882-504-9 .
• Film tear. Appenzeller, Herisau 2009, ISBN 978-3-85882-500-1 .
• Soul Shards. Appenzeller, Herisau 2010, ISBN 978-3-85882-518-6 .
• The sign of Cain. Appenzeller, Herisau 2011, ISBN 978-3-85882-564-3 .
• The blood enemy. Appenzeller, Herisau 2012, ISBN 978-3-85882-636-7 .

Short stories

• The beekeeper. Murderous stories. Appenzeller, Herisau 2009, ISBN 978-3-85882-505-6 .
• Poisonous comrades. Murderous stories. Appenzeller, Herisau 2010, ISBN 978-3-85882-519-3 .
• with Petra Ivanov (Ed.): Mord in Switzerland. 18 crime stories. Appenzeller, Herisau 2013, ISBN 978-3-85882-653-4 .
• The devil angler. Murderous stories. Appenzeller, Herisau 2014, ISBN 978-3-85882-684-8 .
• Murderous stories. Audio book. Appenzeller, Herisau 2010, ISBN 978-3-85882-531-5 .
• with Petra Ivanov (Ed.): Mord in Switzerland. Volume 2: 18 crime stories. Appenzeller, Schwellbrunn 2016, ISBN 978-3-85882-736-4 .
• Small murder in between. Unionsverlag, Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-293-00504-4 .

Poetry

• Gallows birds. Weird poems. Appenzeller, Schwellbrunn 2015, ISBN 978-3-85882-726-5 .
• Shadow dance. Weird poems. Appenzeller, Schwellbrunn 2015, ISBN 978-3-85882-725-8 .
• Executioner's meal. Weird poems . Appenzeller, Schwellbrunn 2017, ISBN 978-3-85882-727-2 .

Various books

• Blossom white and jet black. BOD, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-0344-0097-7 .
• The book of Antares. Edition traces, Winterthur 2005, ISBN 3-033-00039-8 .
• with Bea Huwiler: The crazy from Leipzig. An illustrated crime thriller. Edition PaperOne, Leipzig 2007, ISBN 978-3-939398-58-5 .
• with Petra Ivanov: shock frost. Thriller . Unionsverlag, Zurich 2017. ISBN 978-3-293-00523-5 .

Documentaries

• Crime. Searching for clues with crime writer Mitra Devi. Director & camera: Bea Huwiler, assistant director: Mitra Devi. In-house production 2012, Bea Huwiler, 50 min.
• Four women and death. Concept, direction & camera: Mitra Devi. Own production 2013, Mitra Devi, 63 min.
• Long time love. Concept & direction: Mitra Devi, camera: Bea Huwiler. In-house production 2014, Mitra Devi, 50 min.
• Gothic. Concept & direction: Mitra Devi, camera: Bea Huwiler, Lia de Luca, Harald Vigano. Own production 2014, Mitra Devi, 89 min.

Visual arts

Mitra Devi had retrospective shows as well as solo and group exhibitions in galleries, in the Stadtcasino Baden and in the Zurich art scene ( Toni area , Hürlimann area).

Awards, grants and grants

• 2003: Wilhelm Busch Prize
• 2006: Contribution to the City of Uster for Filmriss
• 2007: Stayed six months as a crime fiction writer in Leipzig
• 2008: Contribution from the city of Uster
• 2009: Krimi scholarship from the Wiesbaden literature house
• 2009: Nomination for the Zurich Crime Prize, with film tear
• 2010: Nomination for the Zurich Crime Prize, with Das Kainszeichen
• 2012: Pro Helvetia work grant
• 2013: Literature Funding Fondation Jan Michalski
• 2013: Zurich Crime Prize, for Der Blutsfeind
• 2014: Audience award from the Pink Apple Film Festival Frauenfeld for Long Time Love
• 2015: Oertli Foundation Literature Funding
• 2015: Funding for literature from the Ernst Göhner Foundation
• 2015: Promotion of literature in the Bündner Kulturamt
• 2016: Literature Funding Fondation Jan Michalski
• 2017: six-week artist residency at the Kartause Ittingen

Web links

• Mitra Devi website (archive)
• Entry about Mitra Devi in the lexicon of the Association of Authors of Switzerland
• Mitra Devi in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Mitra Devi in the Union Publishing House
• Mitra Devi at Swissfilms

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alexandra Kedves: Zurich author Mitra Devi is dead In: Tages-Anzeiger , September 29, 2018, p. 50 ( online version ).
2. ↑ Zurich crime writer Mitra Devi has died. In: Klein Report of September 29, 2018.