Ilma Rakusa
Ilma Rakusa in 2019
Ilma Rakusa in 2019
Born (1946-01-02) 2 January 1946 (age 78)
Rimavská Sobota, Slovakia
Occupation
  • Writer
  • translator
  • professor
NationalitySwiss
GenreProse, poetry
Years active1971–present
Notable worksMehr Meer (2009)
Notable awards
Website
www.ilmarakusa.info

Ilma Rakusa (born 2 January 1946) is a Swiss writer and translator. She translates French, Russian, Serbo-Croatian and Hungarian into German.

Biography

Ilma Rakusa was born in 1946 in Rimavská Sobota, Slovakia to a Slovenian father and a Hungarian mother. She spent her early childhood in Budapest, Ljubljana and Trieste. In 1951, her family moved to Zürich, Switzerland.[1] Ilma Rakusa attended the Volksschule and the Gymnasium in Zürich. After the Matura, she studied Slavic and Romance Languages and Literature in Zürich, Paris and Leningrad between 1965 and 1971.[2]

In 1971, she was awarded a doctorate for her thesis titled Studien zum Motiv der Einsamkeit in der russischen Literatur, about themes of loneliness in Russian literature. From 1971 to 1977, she was a Wissenschaftlicher Assistent at the Slavic Seminar at the University of Zurich (UZH). From 1977 to 2006, she worked at UZH as a Lehrbeauftragter [de].[2][3]

In 1977, Rakusa authored her first book, a collection of poems titled Wie Winter. She has since published numerous collections of poems, collected short stories and essays. Rakusa works as a translator from French, Russian, Serbo-Croatian and Hungarian into German.[1] She has translated works by authors including the French novelist Marguerite Duras, the Russian writer Aleksey Remizov, the Hungarian author Imre Kertész, the Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva and the Serbo-Croatian Danilo Kiš.[4] Rakusa also works as a journalist (Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Die Zeit).[1] Rakusa's novel Mehr Meer (2009) has been translated into many languages and received the Swiss Book Prize in 2009.[4]

Rakusa has been a member of the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung since 1996[1] and the jury of the Zuger Übersetzer-Stipendium [de].[2] In 2010/2011, she was a fellow at the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study.[1]

Today, Ilma Rakusa lives as a freelance writer in Zürich.[2]

Awards and honors

Ilma Rakusa at the Erlanger Poetenfest 2009.

Bibliography

As editor

Translations into German

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Ilma Rakusa". www.geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de (in German). 18 October 2016. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d "Ilma Rakusa". www.heidelberg.de. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  3. ^ "Ilma Rakusa" (PDF). www.ilmarakusa.info (in German).
  4. ^ a b Breidecker, Volker (30 December 2015). "Die Fahrende. Ilma Rakusa, die große Europäerin der Literatur, wird 70". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). No. 300. p. 14.
  5. ^ "Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding". City of Leipzig. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
  6. ^ "Ilma Rakusa erhält Manès-Sperber-Preis". Der Standard (in Austrian German). 12 November 2015. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  7. ^ "Kleist-Preis für Schweizer Schriftstellerin Ilma Rakusa". Die Welt (in German). 9 May 2019. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  8. ^ "Zuglärm und Orgelklang". Rheinischer Merkur (in German). No. 49. 3 December 2009. p. 2. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
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