Christoph Geiser
Landis & Gyr Stiftung Residency
1990
Christoph Geiser is a Swiss writer. Christoph studied sociology at the universities of Freiburg im Breisgau and Basel, before dropping out and spent several months in prison in 1970 for refusing military service. Since 1978, he has worked as a freelance writer in Bern and Berlin.
Christoph’s prose and poetry is influenced by Kafka and Brecht, and mainly deals with disturbed family relationships. Since the mid-1980s he has engaged more with the topic of his own homosexuality, and removing the societal taboos towards his community. After the first volumes of short stories and poetry, he achieved his first successes with the novels Grünsee and Brachland. The clearest turning point in Christoph's work as a novelist can be found in Wüstenfahrt, his first novel about a gay relationship. He has been recognised with numerous awards, including the Prize from the Swiss Schiller Foundation (1974, 1978); the Grand Prisz for Literature from the City and Canton of Bern (2018); and the Swiss Literature Prize (2020). Christoph is a member of the Association of Authors of Switzerland, the German-Swiss PEN Center and a corresponding member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry in Darmstadt.
Landis & Gyr Stiftung, Switzerland
The Landis & Gyr foundation awards studio scholarships to Swiss artists and cultural professionals in London, Budapest, Sofia and Zug. Its London-based residency partnership with Acme was established in 1987, and provides six month long work/live opportunities for ten Swiss artists per year. Artists are selected for the programme directly by Landis & Gyr Stiftung and must demonstrate a track record of achievement in their field. Over two hundred visual artists, curators, writers, musicians and composers have benefitted from the programme. Residencies are based in Stepney, E1 and are available to Swiss residents only
For more information visit lg-stiftung.ch.
