About

The Swiss Creative Writing Prize is a competition to encourage creative writing in English amongst high-school-aged students in Switzerland.

It aims to help students develop their thinking, self-expression and creative skills as well as their ability to write in English. Ultimately, we hope that students will develop a love for language and literature.

The Prize was launched in the 2018-2019 school year and this year (2022-2023) will be its fifth ar.

The Prize is being run by Books Books Books, the independent English bookshop in Lausanne, as we believe in the power of creating the written word. While of course there will be ‘winners’ and ‘losers’, we believe that creating a work of fiction or poetry is already a great achievement. We leave it to Samuel Beckett’s poem Worstward Ho! to sum up our philosophy:

“On. Say on. Be said on. Somehow on. Till nohow on. Said nohow on.

Say for be said. Missaid. From now say for missaid.

Say a body. Where none. No mind. Where none. That at least. A place. Where none. For the body. To be in. Move in. Out of. Back into. No. No out. No back. Only in. Stay in. On in. Still.

All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”