Franziska Witschi: Wildwechsel

Description

Literature Prize Canton Bern 2026! Franziska Witschi reads from her book "Wildwechsel. Stories from the City" and talks about unexpected encounters with animals in the city. Moderation: Sibylle Marti Wildwechsel. Stories from the City Stories from the City: Here, people go about their business. Then they encounter an animal. What happens when Sue discovers a viper on the Visper Bahnhofplatz? When Maya stubs her toe on a prehistoric horseshoe crab in Brooklyn? "Wildwechsel" tells in 21 stories about the meeting of humans and animals in the city. They take place in various locations around the world, as a play with the beginnings of Nature Writing in the 18th century. The characters in the stories are not seeking nature but encounter it by chance and react to the unexpected interaction. The individual stories are connected in a larger context and reflect pressing contemporary issues such as our relationship with non-human species. They poetically tell of projections, fears, and desires that are awakened when humans encounter wilderness in the city and realize that they are also part of this wilderness. Franziska Witschi Franziska Witschi, born in 1973, studied biology in Bern and completed the Literary Writing program in Zurich. As a biologist, she creates habitats, greening cities, and freeing rivers from their constraints. Writing-wise, she moves between poetry and prose, constantly exploring the relationship with the natural environment. Various publications of poems in literary magazines as well as essays on nature topics. Most recently, her essay "Snakes" was published in the Vontobel series. In 2023, she received a literature fellowship from the Canton of Bern for "Wildwechsel. Stories from the City" and was invited in 2024 to the Nature-Writing workshop of the Stiftung Kunstund Natur. She lives with her family in Bern.