Gabrielle Alioth was born 1955 in Basel, Switzerland, and having studied economics (M.E.) and the history of art worked in econometric forecasting and Operations Research before emigrating to Ireland in 1984.
Her first novel Der Narr (The Fool) was published in 1990. It received the Hamburg literary award for best first novel and was also broadcast as a radio play.
Publication of children’s, travel and non-fiction books. Reading tours through Europe, India, Canada, the United States, Iran and South Africa.
Member of the Irish delegation at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1996 and member of the Swiss delegation in 1998. Swiss writer in residence at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles in 1997. Guest lecturer at the Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland) in 2002. 2005/6: Writer in residence at University College Dublin.
2010 artist in residence at the Böllhaus, Achill Island, Ireland and in the atelier of the UNLÖ (Unabhängiges Literaturhaus NiederÖsterreich), Krems, Austria
2016 Guest lecturer at the University of St. Gallen (Swiss Literature).
Since 2004 lecturer at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Since 2010 writing courses at the Literaturhaus Basel and for the Volkshochschule Basel.
Member of the Judging Panel of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2009. 2017 – 2020 member of the programme committee of the Solothurn Literary Days. Member of the AdS – Autoren der Schweiz and president of the PEN Centre of German Speaking Writers Abroad.
Awards
1991 Mara-Cassens-Preis für den ersten Roman, Literaturhaus Hamburg
2011 Werkbeitrag der Pro Helvetia für den Roman «Die entwendete Handschrift» (erschienen 2016 bei Lenos, Basel)
2012 Geertje Potash-Suhr-Prosapreis
2015 Unterstützung des Katholischen Konfessionsteils des Kantons St. Gallen für den Roman «Gallus, der Fremde» (erschienen 2018 bei Lenos, Basel)
2019 Werkbeitrag des Fachausschusses Literatur BS/BL für den Roman «Die Überlebenden» (erschienen 2021 bei Lenos, Basel)
2020 Kulturpreis der Gemeinde Riehen
2022 SCALG-Lyrikpreis