The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia has awarded a creation grant to nine authors for a literary project. For the second time, authors who do not write in one of Switzerland’s four official languages were also entitled to apply for a grant.   

By autumn 2021, 79 projects had been submitted with an application for a literary creation grant, 45 of which from the German-speaking part of Switzerland, 20 from the Romandie (French), 6 from Ticino (Italian), 1 from the Rhaeto-Romanic speaking part, and 7 in another language. At the recommendation of the eight-strong jury for literature that had assessed the applications in anonymised form, five projects in German – one of which in dialect –, two in French, one in Italian and one in English were selected. The nine projects comprise the genres of fiction, poetry and performing literature.   

Eligible for a literary creation grant are authors who have already had a literary work published by a recognised publishing house, who are actively involved in the Swiss literary scene, and who are either Swiss citizens or permanent residents of Switzerland. The grants are awarded twice a year, in June and in November.