Beat Sterchi (born 12 December 1949,

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

) is a Swiss author who writes in Standard German and Bernese. Sterchi is best known for his 1983 novel ''Blösch'' (translated into English as ''Cow''), which won several awards. The novel describes the psychological impact of working in an abattoir.

Life

After secondary school, Beat Sterchi worked as a butcher, his father's profession./716.html bibliomedia.ch
/ref> In 1970 he emigrated to Canada, where he completed a BA of English at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. In 1975 he went to

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

, where he worked as an English teacher in the capital

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa ( )—formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz''—is the capital and largest city of Honduras along with its sister city, Comaya ...

until 1977 and published his first poems in English and German. From 1977 to 1982 he studied at

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

Montréal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

and worked as a teacher at the

Goethe-Institut The Goethe-Institut (; GI, ''Goethe Institute'') is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit German culture, cultural organization operational worldwide with more than 150 cultural centres, promoting the study of the German language abroad and en ...

. From 1984 to 1994, Sterchi lived as a freelance writer in a Spanish village near

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

. His current residence is

. The

Swiss Literary Archives The Swiss Literary Archives (SLA – ''Schweizerische Literaturarchiv'') in Bern collects literary estates in all four national languages of Switzerland (German, French, Italian and Romansh language). It is part of the Swiss National Library op ...

of the

Swiss National Library The Swiss National Library (, , , ) is the national library of Switzerland. Part of the Federal Office of Culture, it is charged with collecting, cataloging and conserving information in all fields, disciplines, and media connected with Switzerla ...

acquired Sterchi's papers in 2008, with emphasis on his preparations for his novel ''Blösch''.

References

External links

Beat Sterchi's personal website

The Beat Sterchi collection
at the Swiss Literary Archives * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sterchi, Beat 1949 births Living people Swiss writers German literature Swiss literature University of British Columbia alumni