Maja Beutler

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Maja Beutler (born Maroni; 8 December 1936 – 15 December 2021) was a Swiss writer who wrote in German. She published seven novels, three collections of short stories, and three collections of radio commentaries. She won four Bernese Book Prizes, the Schiller Prize, and a Welti Prize for Drama.

Life and career
Beutler was born in Bern, Switzerland, and grew up as an only child. Her mother was German-Swiss and her father owned a printing press and was Italian-Austrian. She studied interpretation in Zurich and also studied in France, England, and Italy. She worked as an interpreter for a food company and as a conference organizer at UNESCO in Rome. In 1960 she returned to Bern to manage her father’s printing shop after he became ill. She married Urs Beutler in 1961 and they had three children. Beutler worked as a translator and as a resident author for Stadttheater Bern in the mid-1980s. She also had a morning radio show on Schweizer Radio DRS, which helped her reach a wider audience. She continued writing for herself even into old age. Beutler died on 15 December 2021 at the age of 85 in Switzerland.

Works
Her published works include:
- Flissingen fehlt auf der Landkarte (1976)
- Fuss fassen (1980)
- Die Wortfalle (1983)
- Das Bildnis der Doña Quichotte (1989)
- Die Stunde, da wir fliegen lernen (1994)
- Schwarzer Schnee (2009)
- Ich lebe schon lange heute (2013)

Prizes
- Buchpreis der Stadt Bern (1976, 1980, 1984)
- Preis der Schillerstiftung (1983)
- Welti-Preis für das Drama (1985)
- Literaturpreis der Stadt Bern (1988)