Jan Michalski Prize for Literature (French:Prix Jan Michalski) is a Swissliterary prize for any work of fiction or non-fiction published anywhere in the world in any language.[1][2] It is meant to recognize authors from around the world andworld literature in general. The jury is multicultural and multilingual in composition.
The award was launched October 2009[1] and the first winner was announced November 2010. The winner receivesCHF 50,000. The authors of finalists are invited for a three-month period of residence in the Maison de l'écriture.[3]
The prize was created by the Jan Michalski Foundation for Writing and Literature (Fondation Jan Michalski pour l’Ecriture et la Littérature), founded in 2004 at the initiative ofVera Michalski-Hoffmann in memory of her husbandJan Michalski.[4] It is located inMontricher, Switzerland.[5]
| Year | Author | Original title | English, French or German translation | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 |   Aleksandar Hemon | The Lazarus Project | Winner | [6] | |
  Yousef Al-Mohaimeed | فخاخ الرائحة | Wolves of the Crescent Moon | Finalists | ||
 Tim Flannery | The Weather Makers | ||||
 Laurent Binet | HHhH | Nominee | |||
 Péter Esterházy | Harmonia cælestis | Celestial Harmonies | |||
 Alois Hotschnig | Im Sitzen läuft es sich besser davon | ||||
 Viktor Malakhov | Уязвимость любви | ||||
| Frédéric Martinez | Claude Monet, une vie au fil de l’eau | ||||
 Klaus Merz | Der Argentinier | ||||
 Pavel Sanaev | Похороните меня за плинтусом | ||||
| 2011 | György Dragomán | A fehér király | The White King | Winner | [7] |
 Miguel Syjuco | Ilustrado | Finalists | |||
 Sjón | Skugga-Baldur | The Blue Fox | |||
 Liu Xiaobo | — | No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems | Nominee | ||
 Peter Fröberg Idling | Pol Pots leende | Pol Pot’s Smile | |||
| Mark Kharitonov | Проект Одиночество | ||||
 Antoni Libera | Godot i jego cień | ||||
| 2012 |  Julia Lovell | The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China | Winner | [8] | |
| Martin Pollack | Kaiser von Amerika: Die große Flucht aus Galizien | Finalists | |||
| Timothy Snyder | Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin | ||||
| Philippe Cassard | Franz Schubert | Nominee | |||
| Patrick Deville | Kampuchéa | ||||
 Mark Gevisser | Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred | ||||
| Donald Ray Pollock | The Devil All the Time | ||||
| Maria Rybakova | Острый нож для мягкого сердца | Couteau tranchant pour un cœur tendre | |||
| Bruno Smolarz | Hokusaï aux doigts d’encre | ||||
| 2013 |  Mahmoud Dowlatabadi | زوال کلنل | The Colonel | Winner | [9][10] |
| Serge Gruzinski | L’aigle et le Dragon: Démesure européenne et mondialisation au XVIe siècle | Finalists | [11] | ||
| Steve Sem-Sandberg | De fattiga i Łódź | The Emperor of Lies | |||
| Robert Macfarlane | The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot | Second selection | |||
 Uday Prakash | — | The Walls of Delhi | |||
| Janusz Głowacki | Good night, Dżerzi | First selection | |||
| Chan Koonchung | 盛世：中國，2013年 | The Fat Years | |||
| Charu Nivedita | ஸீரோ டிகிரி | Zero Degree | |||
| Tiphaine Samoyault | Bête de cirque | ||||
 Enrique Vila-Matas | Chet Baker piensa en su arte | ||||
| Chris Ware | Building Stories | ||||
| 2014 | Serhiy Zhadan | Ворошиловград | Voroshylovhrad | Winner | [12][13] |
| Mark Gevisser | Dispatcher: Lost and Found in Johannesburg | Finalists | |||
| Marci Shore | The Taste of Ashes: The Afterlife of Totalitarianism in Eastern Europe | ||||
| Rana Mitter | China’s War with Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival | Second selection | |||
| Jaume Cabré | Confiteor | Confessions | |||
 Maxime Raymond Bock | Atavismes | Atavisms | First selection | ||
| Camille de Toledo | Oublier, trahir puis disparaître | ||||
| Paul Harding | Enon | ||||
| Fanny Howe | Second Childhood | ||||
| Wojciech Nowicki | Salki | ||||
 Dragan Velikić | Bonavia | ||||
  Najem Wali | ملائكة الجنوب | Engel des Südens | |||
| 2015 | Mark Thompson | Birth Certificate: The Story of Danilo Kiš | Winner | [14] | |
| Navid Kermani | Zwischen Koran und Kafka: West-östliche Erkundungen | Between Quran and Kafka: West-Eastern Inquiries | Finalists | ||
| Najem Wali | بغداد مالبورو، من أجل برادلي مانينك | Bagdad Marlboro: Ein Roman für Bradley Manning | |||
| Jean-Noël Orengo | La Fleur du Capital | Second selection | |||
 Ari Shavit | My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel | ||||
| Philipp Ther | Die neue Ordnung auf dem alten Kontinent: Eine Geschichte des neoliberalen Europa | Europe since 1989: A History | First selection | ||
 Lucian Dan Teodorovici | Matei Brunul | L’histoire de Bruno Matei | |||
| Frédéric Badré | La grande santé | ||||
| Valentin Retz | Noir parfait | ||||
| Hermione Lee | Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life | ||||
| Lisa Jarnot | Robert Duncan, The Ambassador from Venus: A Biography | ||||
| Gansel Mireille | Traduire comme transhumer | Translation as Transhumance | |||
| 2016 |  Georgi Gospodinov | Физика на тъгата | Physics of Sorrow | Winner | [15][16] |
| Dževad Karahasan | Što pepeo priča | The Solace of the Night Sky | Finalists | ||
| Aatish Taseer | The Way Things Were | ||||
| Julian Barnes | Levels of Life | Second selection | |||
| Navid Kermani | Ungläubiges Staunen: Über das Christentum | Wonder Beyond Belief: On Christianity | |||
| Ada Limón | Bright Dead Things | First selection | |||
 Alberto Mangel | Curiosity | ||||
| Iván Sándor | Az éjszaka mélyén, 1914 | Husar in der Hölle, 1914 | |||
 Andrea Bajani | La vita non è in ordine alfabetico | ||||
| Fariba Hachtroudi | Le colonel et l’appât 455 | The Man Who Snapped His Fingers | |||
| Stefan Banz | Louis Michel Eilshemius: Peer of Poet-Painters | ||||
| Patrick McGuinness | Poetry and Radical Politics in fin de siècle France: From Anarchism to Action française | ||||
| Víctor del Árbol | Un millón de gotas | A Million Drops | |||
| Ulrike Guérot | Warum Europa eine Republik werden muss! Eine politische Utopie | Why Europe Should Become a Republic! A Political Utopia | |||
| 2017 | Thierry Wolton | Une histoire mondiale du communisme | Winner | [17] | |
| Lawrence Liang et al. | Invisible Libraries | Finalists | |||
| Liao Yiwu | 輪迴的螞蟻 | Die Wiedergeburt der Ameisen | |||
| Paul Kalanithi | When Breath Becomes Air | Second selection | |||
| Wioletta Greg | Guguły | Swallowing Mercury | |||
| Yuriy Vynnychuk | Танґо смерті | Tango of Death | First selection | ||
| Eugénie Paultre | L’état actuel des choses | ||||
 Alvar González-Palacios | Solo ombre: Silhouettes storiche, letterarie e mondane | ||||
| Peter Frankopan | The Silk Roads: A New History of the World | ||||
| 2018 | Olga Tokarczuk | Księgi Jakubowe | The Books of Jacob | Winner | [18] |
| Yuval Noah Harari | ההיסטוריה של המחר | Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow | Finalists | ||
| Jean Rolin | Le traquet kurde | ||||
| Norman Ohler | Der totale Rausch: Drogen im Dritten Reich | Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich | Second selection | ||
| Patrick McGuinness | Other People’s Countries: A Journey into Memory | ||||
| Maggie Nelson | The Argonauts | First selection | |||
| Virginie Despentes | Vernon Subutex | ||||
| George Szirtes | Bad Machine | ||||
| Preti Taneja | We That Are Young | ||||
| 2019 | Zeruya Shalev | כאב | Pain | Winner | [19] |
| Francesca Melandri | Sangue giusto | Finalists | |||
 Patrik Ouředník | La fin du monde n’aurait pas eu lieu | The End of the World Might Not Have Taken Place | |||
| Antonio Iturbe | La bibliotecaria de Auschwitz | The Librarian of Auschwitz | Second selection | ||
| Morgan Sportès | Le ciel ne parle pas | First selection | |||
  Long Litt Woon | Stien tilbake til livet: Om sopp og sorg | The Way Through the Woods: Of Mushrooms and Mourning | |||
| 2020 |  Mia Couto with David Brookshaw (trans.) | As Areias do Imperador | Sands of the Emperor | Winner | [20][21] |
| Fran Ross | Oreo | Finalists | |||
| Philippe Sands | East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity | ||||
| Érik Orsenna | Briser en nous la mer gelée | Second selection | |||
 Bernard Quiriny | Vies conjugales | ||||
| Roland Schimmelpfennig | An einem klaren, eiskalten Januarmorgen zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts | One Clear, Ice-Cold January Morning at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century | First selection | ||
| Vigdis Hjorth | Arv og miljø | Will and Testament | |||
| Wojciech Nowicki | Cieśniny | ||||
| Nastassja Martin | Croire aux fauves | In the Eye of the Wild | |||
| Yurii Andrukhovych | Коханці юстиції | Die Lieblinge der Justiz | |||
 António Damásio | The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures | ||||
| Catherine Meurisse | La Légèreté | Lightness | |||
| Sergei Lebedev | Предел забвения | Oblivion | |||
| Sorj Chalandon | Le jour d’avant | ||||
 Viet Thanh Nguyen | The Sympathizer | ||||
| Ruth Zylberman | 209 rue Saint-Maur, Paris Xe: Autobiographie d’un immeuble | The Department of Missing Persons | |||
| 2021 | Memorial International (Alena Kozlova, Nikolai Mikhailov, Irina Ostrovskaya, andIrina Scherbakova) with Georgia Thomson (trans.) | Знак не сотрется: Судьбы остарбайтеров в письмах, воспоминаниях и устных рассказах | OST: Letters, Memoirs and Stories from Ostarbeiter in Nazi Germany | Winner | [22] |
| Frank Huyler | White Hot Light: Twenty-five Years in Emergency Medicine | Finalists | |||
 Eduardo Halfon with Lisa Dillman andDaniel Hahn (trans.) | Duelo | Mourning | |||
| Sophy Roberts | The Lost Pianos of Siberia | Second selection | |||
| Sergei Lebedev withAntonina W. Bouis (trans.) | Дебютант | Untraceable | |||
| Daniel Mendelsohn | Three Rings: A Tale of Exile, Narrative, and Fate | First selection | |||
| Mário Cláudio | Tríptico da Salvação | ||||
| Ksenia Buksha | Открывается внутрь | ||||
| Maria Stepanova | Памяти памяти | In Memory of Memory | |||
| Judith Schalansky | Verzeichnis einiger Verluste | An Inventory of Losses | |||
| Édouard Louis | Qui a tué mon père | Who Killed My Father | |||
| Mathieu Sapin | Gérard: Cinq années dans les pattes de Depardieu | Gérard: Five Years with Depardieu | |||
| Lisa Mandel | Une année exemplaire | ||||
| Patrice Jean | L’homme surnuméraire | ||||
| Claude Hunzinger | Les grands cerfs | ||||
 Carmen Boullosa | El libro de Ana | The Book of Anna | |||
| 2022 |  Taina Tervonen | Les fossoyeuses | Winner | [23] | |
 Eliane Brum with Diane Grosklaus Whitty (trans.) | A vida que ninguém vê | The Collector of Leftover Souls: Dispatches from Brazil | Finalists | ||
 Untold Narratives | — | My Pen is the Wing of a Bird: New Fiction by Afghan Women | |||
| Perrine Lamy-Quique | Dans leur nuit | Second selection | |||
| Laurent Binet | Civilizations | ||||
 Nathacha Appanah | Le ciel par-dessus le toit | The Sky Above the Roof | First selection | ||
| M. John Harrison | The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again | ||||
| Georgi Gospodinov | Времеубежище | Time Shelter | |||
| Cat Jarman | River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads | ||||
| Tanguy Viel | La fille qu’on appelle | The Girl You Call | |||
| Stéphanie Coste | Le passeur | ||||
| 2023 |  Karina Sainz Borgo | El Tercer País | Winner | [24] | |
| Suzanne Simard | Finding the Mother Tree: Uncovering the Wisdom and Intelligence of the Forest | Finalists | |||
 Hamid Ismailov with Donald Rayfield (trans.) | Manaschi | ||||
| Emanuele Trevi | Due vite | Second selection | |||
| Stefan Hertmans with David McKay (trans.) | De opgang | The Ascent | |||
| Hélène Frappat | Trois femmes disparaissent | First selection | |||
| Michel Houellebecq | Anéantir | Annihilation | |||
| Eva Baltasar | Boulder | ||||
| Anna Badkhen | Bright Unbearable Reality | ||||
| Agustín Fernández Mallo | El libro de todos los amores | The Book of All Loves | |||
| Sara Stridsberg | Kärlekens Antarktis | The Antarctica of Love | |||
| Aslak Nore | Havets kirkegård | The Sea Cemetery | |||
 Sally Hayden | My Fourth Time, We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route | ||||
| Sigrid Nunez | What Are You Going Through? | ||||
| 2024 | Kate Beaton | Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands | Winner | [25] | |
| Mathieu Belazi | Attaquer la terre et le soleil | Finalists | |||
| Irene Solà | Canto jo i la muntanya balla | When I Sing, Mountains Dance | |||
 Iman Mersal | في أثر عنايات الزيات | Traces of Enayat | Second selection | ||
| Fabienne Radi | Une autobiographie de Nina Childress | ||||
 Carlos Fonseca | Austral | First selection | |||
| Sylvain Tesson | Avec les fées | ||||
 Byung-Chul Han | Infokratie: Digitalisierung und die Krise der Demokratie | Infocracy: Digitization and the Crisis of Democracy | |||
| Yasmina Reza | James Brown mettait des bigoudis | ||||
| Cecile Pin | Wandering Souls | ||||
| Himash Matar | My Friends | ||||
| Fernanda Melchor | Páradais | Paradais | |||
| Gaëlle Obiégly | Sans valeur | ||||
| Adam Thirlwell | The Future Future | ||||
