Time to write
At the Château de Lavigny, we know that, more than anything, time is what writers need. Thanks to the generous initiative of our founder Jane Ledig-Rowohlt, over the past 20 years we have been able to offer that rare gift to more than 600 poets, novelists and writers, working in all forms and genres. Work produced at the Chateau de Lavigny has enriched the world of international writing, as well as highlighting the role Switzerland plays as a centre of creativity and literature.
Heinrich Maria and Jane Ledig-Rowohlt Foundation and Its Mission
The Château de Lavigny International Writers’ Residence was founded by the late Jane Ledig-Rowohlt in memory of her husband, the German publisher, Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohlt (Rowohlt Verlag). Her wish was to bequeath their home, the Château de Lavigny, for a writers’ residence offering and fostering “a spirit of international community and creativity.”
While Ledig-Rowohlt published Albert Camus, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Günther Grass, Vladimir Nabokov, John Updike, Harold Pinter, Jean-Paul Sartre, and many other key twentieth century writers, he always looked for new voices. In that spirit, the Foundation encourages emerging writers as well as established ones to apply. It looks for writers interested in exchanging their ideas as well as concentrating on their own work.
Since the creation of the foundation in 1996, the Château de Lavigny has welcomed some 600 writers.
“My stay at the Lavigny Foundation was meaningful, unforgettable. Good conditions for work, lovely atmosphere. A view at the white peak of Mont Blanc. Long days for writing, long evenings for conversations… ”
“The chateau is unforgetable”
“Magic is a much misunderstood phenomenon. People think it fantastical. But true magic is quiet, its effect is transformative. But you don’t know how true transformations happened. Magical is what Château de Lavigny is ; and it has worked its magic on me. ./. ... beyond writing we all felt ourselves subtly and not so subtly changed here, as if an unvisible Prospero of life brings us a new shore of being”
“Tout est si beau ici : je venais pour écrire, pour re-plonger dans les drames de la destruction... ./. il m’a semblé que cela allait être difficile, impossible, antithétique,... ./. Et puis, la chance: depuis 3 ou 4 jours, enfin le vrai départ... le rythme, les phrases, la vie d’avant... ./. J’ai pu maintenant commencer un autre livre, ici. Merci! ”
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THE RESIDENCIES
Find out more about the writers and translators’ residence
OUR EVENTS
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IN RESIDENCE
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