Pen pals: Peter Stamm and Peter Terrin
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Since it was impossible to bring writers together in 2020 and 2021, Passa Porta invited a number of European writers to correspond with each other. One of these exchanges was between Swiss writer Peter Stamm and Flemish writer Peter Terrin. You can still read their correspondence on the Passa Porta website, but why not come and listen to them live.
you’ve got mail
Peter Terrin has for years been a great admirer of the work of his Swiss colleague Peter Stamm. In 2020 he was very happy to accept our invitation to have a conversation with him through letters. They wrote to each other about the invisible writer, the responsibility of the artist, and their shared passion for photography.
dark blue
In a Deep Blue Hour is the title of Peter Stamm’s eighth novel, in which a film-maker struggles to capture an elusive writer in a documentary before eventually finding the answers to her questions in the writer’s work. A pointed commentary on autofiction, with witty insights about truth and fabrication, this is Stamm at the height of his powers.
al het blauw
In his latest letter to Stamm, Terrin talks about his new novel, Al het blauw, which was about to be released. Four years later, he reintroduces Simon, the main character from that book, in Nog lang geen winter. In this futuristic what-if story about parental love and second chances, Terrin gives Simon a taste of the life he himself never lived, while also seeming to reveal something about his own hidden desires. Journalist Nicky Aerts goes in search of the writer in the book.
about the authors
Peter Stamm is an award-winning Swiss writer whose books have been translated into more than thirty languages. Stamm studied English, psychology and computer science. He worked in Paris as an accountant for a year. He also lived for some time in the US, Scandinavia and Germany. Agnes earned him the Rausirer Literature Prize in 1998. In 2014 he won the prestigious Friedrich Hölderlin Prize. In 2013 he was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize for his entire body of work.
Peter Terrin is an acclaimed Flemish author of plays, stories and novels. His book The Guard, published in 2019, was shortlisted for the Libris Literature Prize. It was awarded the 2010 European Union Literature Prize and was named one of the best novels of the year by The Irish Times. With Post Mortem (2012), he broke through to a wider audience. This immaculate novel about the illusion of fiction won Terrin the AKO Literature Prize. Monte Carlo (2014) was also nominated for the Libris Literature Prize. In 2021 Al het blauw was shortlisted for the Boekenbon Literature Prize. Nog lang geen winter was published in January 2025. Terrin’s work has been translated into more than fifteen languages.
about the moderator
Nicky Aerts is a journalist and radio-maker. For the past twenty years, she could be heard on Radio 1, in the news service, and on Radio Klara. As a moderator, she regularly appears on literary and other stages.
Organisation: Passa Porta
Pictures: Peter Terrin © Josefien Tondeleir, Peter Stamm © Anita Affentranger
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