With Stéphane Houlmann, Mirko Beetschen has produced the interior books «Bergwärts» (DVA, 2012), «Men's Homes» (Knesebeck, 2013) and «Wohnort Zürich» (DVA, 2014) as well as the «Insider Guide Bern» (Zytglogge, 2019).
His first novel, the psychological thriller «Schattenbruder» (Bilgerverlag), was published in 2014. For his second novel, the Gothic novel «Bel Veder» (Zytglogge, 2018), he received the Literature Prize of the Canton of Bern in 2019. In 2020 he published a first series of art cards from his photo project «Urban Wanderings».
His new novel, the thriller «Das Haus der Architektin» will be out in March 2023 (Zytglogge).
Books & cards
Thriller
The Architect's House
Out in March 2023
Hidden away on an island in Lake Neuchâtel, inaccessible and abandoned for decades, lies the brutalist estate «Les Espoirs», breeding ground for countless legends. Here lived the meanwhile mostly forgotten architect Marie-Yolande Rabaut, who didn’t allow any reports on her house whatsoever. When Michael T. Ungermann is asked to visit and write about this modernist extravaganza as the first journalist ever, he can hardly believe his luck.
Gothic novel
Bel Veder
Trapped in the mountains
«With ‹Bel Veder›, author Mirko Beetschen successfully creates a visually stunning and thrilling Gothic novel, in which he playfully messes with the reader's expectations. The setting is an old grand hotel in the Swiss Alps in the autumn of 1946.»
Literary Commission of Bern's Office of Culture
City guide
Insider Guide Bern
Mirko Beetschen & Stéphane Houlmann
The authors present a personally curated selection of around 60 Bernese hotspots in German and English. Restaurants, shops, cafés and bars are just as important as places of culture, architecture and outdoor spaces. The short, bilingual texts are supplemented with city maps and photographs by Lorenz Cugini.
Psychological thriller
Schattenbruder
What if you invited someone in and they wouldn't leave ...?
Mirko Beetschen’s debut novel is a psychological puzzle about identity and appearances, a multi-layered thriller with a surprising outcome.
Interior books
Men's Homes, Wohnort Zurich, Bergwärts
Mirko Beetschen & Stéphane Houlmann
«Bergwärts» (2012) shows contemporary living in the Swiss Alps, «Men's Homes» (2013) presents extraordinary homes of men across the world, and «Wohnort Zürich» gives a glimpse of Zurich's rich design life.
Writer & journalist
Mirko Beetschen
Mirko Beetschen was born in Interlaken, Switzerland, in 1974 and grew up on Lake Thun. After his studies of English and American Literature, Media Sciences and English Linguistics, follow stays in the US and England, bigger and smaller jobs as bookseller, cave guide, playing bus supervisor and magazine editor. He has been working as a writer, freelance journalist and entrepreneur since 2005. He is co-owner of the Bergdorf agency.
Writer & journalist
Mirko Beetschen
Mirko Beetschen was born in Interlaken, Switzerland, in 1974 and grew up on Lake Thun. After his studies of English and American Literature, Media Sciences and English Linguistics, follow stays in the US and England, bigger and smaller jobs as bookseller, cave guide, playing bus supervisor and magazine editor. He has been working as a writer, freelance journalist and entrepreneur since 2005. He is co-owner of the Bergdorf agency.
Mirko's Instagram
Agenda
Reading «Das Haus der Architektin»
Hallers Brasserie, Bern
September 2024
Reading «Das Haus der Architektin»
Literarischer Herbst Gstaad
October 26 to 29 2023
Reading on the occasion of the «Weiterschreiben Preis»
Kunsthalle Bern
September 20 2023, 16h30
Grosse Halle
Reading «Das Haus der Architektin»
Bibliothek Spiez
September 15 2023, 20h00
Reading «Das Haus der Architektin»
Bibliothek Bremgarten
September 7 2023
20h00
Reading «Das Haus der Architektin»
Mirko Beetschen’s new novel «Das Haus der Architektin» («The Architect’s House») is a mixture of scary thriller and alternative architectural history, a gripping haunted house novel in a modernist building.
Bookstore Haupt, Bern
Friday, Mai 5 2023, 19h00
Book premiere
«Das Haus der Architektin»
Mirko Beetschen’s new novel «Das Haus der Architektin» («The Architect’s House») is a mixture of scary thriller and alternative architectural history, a gripping haunted house novel in a modernist building.
Tuesday, March 28 2023, 20h00
Press & awards
Literary award for «Bel Veder»
Mirko Beetschen is awarded with the literary prize of Bern's Office of Culture 2019. – «With ‹Bel Veder›, author Mirko Beetschen successfully creates a visually stunning and thrilling Gothic novel, in which he playfully messes with the reader's expectations. The setting is an old grand hotel in the Swiss Alps in the autumn of 1946.»
Zeitgeist
«The rest of Switzerland likes to scoff about Bern’s proverbial slowness and that things don’t move here. In their well written and beautifully illustrated guide, Mirko Beetschen and Stéphane Houlmann prove that this prejudice definitely doesn’t apply to the local culture and gastronomy scene.»
Shortstory
«Marieherbert» in Swiss magazine
Mirko Beetschen has written a new literary text for Swiss culture magazine “Kulturtipp”. “Marieherbert” is an absurd short story, in which our bureaucracy and stereotypical role patterns are questioned.
Award
Scholarship from the city of Bern
Mirko Beetschen receives the Weiterschreiben scholarship 2023 from the city of Bern. The award comes with a prize money of CHF 10’000 and not only honours the existing work, but also serves as a support for future projects and an encouragement to keep on writing.
