13 November 2014. A joiner needs wood and a mason needs stones to work with – the writer needs words. Although it is perfectly possible for literature to become art sometimes, what a writer pursues is primarily a craft. And like every craft, the craft of writing has its rules, its tricks and occasionally its secrets.

A visit to a workshop

Charles Lewinsky deals with these tricks and tips in a three-part lecture. The audience can look forward to a kind of visit to a workshop during which Lewinsky will reveal problems which a verbal craftsman grapples with day after day. On 20 November, he will home in on "Story and language". On 27 November, he will focus on "Figures and stories", and on the final evening, on 4 December, he will talk about "Researches and perspectives". He will provide a glimpse behind the scenes and hopes that this will make a tiny little change to how readers approach a book.

Author and script writer

Charles Lewinsky, who was born in Zurich in 1946, works as a dramatist, director and editor. He writes radio plays, novels and stage plays and has written TV shows and scripts, among them for "Fascht e Familie" and "Fertig lustig". In 1984, he published his first book, Hitler auf dem Rütli, together with Doris Morf. Further books, as well as productions for Swiss Television, ARD and ZDF followed. Lewinsky was awarded numerous prizes, among them the Schiller Prize of the Zurich Cantonal Bank for his novel Johannistag in 2001. His novel Melnitz (2006) was translated into ten languages and awarded many prizes, for instance in China as the best German novel of 2006. In 2014, he published his latest work, Kastelau.

The public lectures will take place in the Post Office Building near St.Gallen Main Railway Station, in the Raum für Literatur. They begin on Thursdays at 6.15 p.m.

Photo: Lukas Maeder