Ilma Rakusa

Ilma Rakusa (born 2 January 1946) is a Swiss writer and translator. She translates French, Russian, Serbo-Croatian and Hungarian into German.

Biography Ilma Rakusa was born in 1946 in Rimavská Sobota, Slovakia to a Slovenian father and a Hungarian mother. She spent her early childhood in Budapest, Ljubljana and Trieste. In 1951, her family moved to Zürich, Switzerland. Ilma Rakusa attended the Volksschule and the Gymnasium in Zürich. After the Matura, she studied Slavic and Romance Languages and Literature in Zürich, Paris and Leningrad between 1965 and 1971.

In 1971, she was awarded a doctorate for her thesis titled Studien zum Motiv der Einsamkeit in der russischen Literatur, about themes of loneliness in Russian literature. From 1971 to 1977, she was a Wissenschaftlicher Assistent at the Slavic Seminar at the University of Zurich (UZH). From 1977 to 2006, she worked at UZH as a .

In 1977, Rakusa authored her first book, a collection of poems titled Wie Winter. She has since published numerous collections of poetry, short stories and essays. Rakusa works as a translator from French, Russian, Serbo-Croatian and Hungarian into German. Rakusa also works as a journalist (Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Die Zeit). In 2010/2011, she was a fellow at the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study.

Awards and honors

1987: of the 1991: Petrarca translation award 1995: Swiss Writer-in-residence Max Kade Institute at the University of Southern California 1998: Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding (Commendation Award) 1998: 2003: 2003: Adelbert von Chamisso Prize 2004: Johann-Jakob-Bodmer-Medaille der Stadt Zürich 2005: Vilenica International Literary Prize 2005 by the Mitteleuropazentrum of the Technical University of Dresden and the Sächsische Akademie der Künste 2009: Swiss Book Prize for Mehr Meer. Erinnerungspassagen. 2010/2011: Fellow at the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study 2015: 2017: 2019: Kleist Prize 2023: Cultural award from the city of Zurich 2025: Golden Medal of Honor of the canton of Zurich 2025: Johann-Heinrich-Merck-Preis