Twenty Years On, Biel's Swiss Literary Institute Marks an Anniversary Open House
The bilingual writing school, which has trained more than 200 students including Elisa Shua Dusapin and Arno Camenisch, opens its doors to the public on September 19th to celebrate two decades.
The Institut littéraire suisse in Biel is celebrating its twentieth anniversary on September 19th, with an open house running from 10am to midnight, according to Le Temps. The event includes readings by graduate authors held inside the institute's patrician manor house, in its garden, and among the vineyards behind the building.
The institute is a section of the Bern University of the Arts (HKB) and delivers a bachelor's degree in literary writing, taught in both French and German. Its pedagogy rests on dialogue and collective work rather than a fixed formula, Le Temps reports.
Over its two decades, the school has trained more than 200 students, several of whom have become significant voices in Swiss literature and beyond. Le Temps names Arno Camenisch, Elisa Shua Dusapin, Eva Maria Leuenberger, Dorothee Elmiger, Kim de l'Horizon, Thomas Flahaut, Rebecca Gisler and Antoinette Rychner among the alumni. The article notes that these writers display strongly individual styles, a contrast with fears at the school's founding that such a program would produce standardized writing.
Sources
This article was written from these reports.
