{{short description|Swiss writer|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2025}} {{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see :Template:Infobox writer/doc --> | name = Dorothee Elmiger | image = Dorothee Elmiger-7737.jpg |caption=Dorothee Elmiger at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2025 | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1985|10|13}} | birth_place = Wetzikon, Switzerland | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Writer | language = German | nationality = Swiss }}
'''Dorothee Elmiger''' (born 13 October 1985 in Wetzikon) is a Swiss writer, translator<ref name="d533">{{cite web | title=Dorothee Elmiger | website=Hanser Literaturverlage | date=14 September 2022 | url=https://www.hanser-literaturverlage.de/personen/dorothee-elmiger-p-1576 | language=de | access-date=14 October 2025}}</ref> and historian. She has been awarded numerous prizes, including the German Book Prize and the Swiss Book Prize for her novel ''Die Holländerinnen'' in 2025.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Dorothee Elmiger wins Swiss Book Prize|url=https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture/dorothee-elmiger-wins-swiss-book-prize/90342496|website=SWI swissinfo.ch|date=2025-11-16|access-date=2026-01-30|language=en|first=S. W. I.|last=swissinfo.ch}}</ref>
== Early life and education== Dorothee Elmiger was born in Wetzikon a town in the German speaking area of Northern Switzerland. She has three younger siblings. She grew up in Appenzell-Innerrhoden and attended school in Appenzell and spent one year in New Hampshire before finishing high school in 2005. Elmiger studied history, philosophy, and political science in Zurich, then completed a bachelor's degree in literary writing at the Swiss Literary Institute in Biel. In 2008, she spent one year in Leipzig to study literature.<ref name="munz">{{Cite web |title=Henry Benrath - Munzinger Biographie |url=https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/Dorothee%2520Elmiger/00/2846 |access-date=14 October 2025 |website=www.munzinger.de}}</ref> From 2009 onward she studied political science at Berlin, and Lucerne.<ref name="s734">{{cite web | last=Schneider | first=Laszlo | title=Dorothee Elmiger gewinnt den Deutschen Buchpreis | website=Blick | date=13 October 2025 | url=https://www.blick.ch/people-tv/schweiz/wichtigste-deutschsprachige-literatur-auszeichung-schweizerin-dorothee-elmiger-gewinnt-den-deutschen-buchpreis-id21320586.html | language=de | access-date=13 October 2025}}</ref>
==Career== In 2009, she won a scholarship at the Klagenfurt literature course. One year later in 2010 she read from her first book at the Klagenfurt Ingeborg Bachmann competition and won the Kelag Prize.<ref name="m066">{{cite web | title=Dorothee Elmiger (CH) | website=Bachmannpreis.eu | url=http://archiv.bachmannpreis.orf.at/bachmannpreis.eu/de/information/2737/index.html | language=de | access-date=14 October 2025}}</ref> Since then, Elmiger has won numerous prizes, including the aspekte-Literaturpreis and the Rauris Literature Prize for best literary debut.<ref name="i541">{{cite web | title=Dorothee Elmiger | website=Samuel Fischer Gastprofessur | date=6 October 2023 | url=https://sfischerprof.de/professor/dorothee-elmiger/ | language=de | access-date=13 October 2025}}</ref> In 2014, she received the Hermann-Hesse-Förderpreis for her second novel ''Schlafgänger'',<ref name="h239">{{cite web | title=Hesse-Förderpreis für Autorin Dorothee Elmiger | website=Südostschweiz | date=31 July 2014 | url=https://www.suedostschweiz.ch/zeitung/hesse-foerderpreis-fuer-autorin-dorothee-elmiger | language=de | access-date=13 October 2025}}</ref> in 2015 she was awarded a Swiss Literature Award by the Federal Office of Culture and the Erich Fried Prize.<ref name="n894">{{cite web | title=Dorothee Elmiger | website=University of Chicago Press | url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/author/E/D/au12360681.html | access-date=13 October 2025}}</ref> Her novel ''Out of the Sugar Factory'' (''Aus der Zuckerfabrik'', 2020) was shortlisted for both the German Book Prize and the Swiss Book Prize. In 2023 she was Max Kade Writer-in-Residence at the University of Michigan.<ref>{{Cite web |date=n.d. |title=DOROTHEE ELMIGER {{!}} INFO |url=https://dorotheeelmiger.com/info_de.html |access-date=14 October 2025 |website=dorotheeelmiger.com}}</ref> In October 2025 her novel ''Die Holländerinnen'' (''The Dutch Women'') won the German Book Prize<ref>{{Cite web |last=ndr.de |title=Wer bekommt heute Abend den Deutschen Buchpreis 2025? |url=https://www.ndr.de/kultur/buch/dorothee-elmiger-gewinnt-deutschen-buchpreis-2025,buchpreis-128.html |access-date=13 October 2025 |website=ndr.de |language=de}}</ref> and the Bayerischer Buchpreis (de),<ref>[https://www1.wdr.de/kultur/kulturnachrichten/dorothee-elmiger-bayerischer-buchpreis-102.html "Dorothee Elmiger gewinnt Bayerischen Buchpreis 2025"]. ''wdr.de'', 29 October 2025 (in German). Retrieved 29 October 2025.</ref> and in November 2025 it was also awarded the Swiss Book Prize.<ref>[https://www.schweizerbuchpreis.ch/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/MM_Schweizer-Buchpreis-Siegerbuch-2025.pdf "«Die Holländerinnen» (Carl Hanser Verlag) von Dorothee Elmiger wird mit dem diesjährigen Schweizer Buchpreis ausgezeichnet."]. ''schweizerbuchpreis.ch'', 16 November 2025 (in Swiss German). Retrieved 16 November 2025 (pdf).</ref><ref name=":0" />
==Personal life== In 2023 she moved to Queens, New York City<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 8, 2023 |title=Swan River {{!}} Dorothee Elmiger |url=https://thebaffler.com/stories/swan-river-elmiger |access-date=2025-10-14 |website=The Baffler |language=en-US}}</ref> and per Buch Basel website as of October 2025, she still lived in New York.<ref>{{Cite web |date=15 November 2025 |title=Dorothee Elmiger |url=http://www.buchbasel.ch/de/person/dorothee-elmiger/ |access-date=14 October 2025 |website=www.buchbasel.ch |language=de}}</ref>
==Work== Elmiger is known for her experimental and socially critical texts, which explore themes such as capitalism, history, and identity. Her works combine fictional elements with documentary approaches and are praised for their poetic and dense language. Her work has been translated into several languages, including English, French, Swedish and Turkish.
== Selected publications == * ''Einladung an die Waghalsigen.'' DuMont, Cologne 2010, {{ISBN|978-3-8321-9612-7}} * ''Schlafgänger.'' DuMont, Cologne 2014, {{ISBN|978-3-8321-9742-1}} * ''Aus der Zuckerfabrik.'' Hanser, Munich 2020, {{ISBN|978-3-446-26750-3}} * ''Die Holländerinnen.'' Hanser, Munich 2025, {{ISBN|978-3-446-28298-8}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{official|https://dorotheeelmiger.com/index.html}} * {{cite web | last=Brügger | first=Nadine A. | title=Die Schweizerin Dorothee Elmiger gewinnt den Deutschen Buchpreis | website=Neue Zürcher Zeitung | date=13 October 2025 | url=https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/dorothee-elmiger-gewinnt-den-deutschen-buchpreis-ld.1906653 | language=de | access-date=14 October 2025}} * {{cite web | title=Schöner Erfolg für die Schweizer Literatur | website=Tages-Anzeiger | date=27 June 2010 | url=https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/schoener-erfolg-fuer-die-schweizer-literatur-124972391637 | language=de | access-date=14 October 2025}} * [https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/Dorothee%20Elmiger/00/28469 Munzinger Online: Dorothee Elmiger], 16 December 2024 * [https://www.buchbasel.ch/de/person/dorothee-elmiger/ BuchBasel: Dorothee Elmiger], 16 December 2024
{{Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Prize winners}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elmiger, Dorothee}} Category:1985 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century Swiss women writers Category:Swiss women novelists Category:German-language Swiss writers Category:People from Wetzikon Category:German Book Prize winners