Alexander Estis

Alexander Estis (Russian: Александр Николаевич Эстис; born 20 September 1986 in Moscow) is a Russian-Swiss author, translator and journalist. His writing is mainly in German.

Alexander Estis
Native name	Александр Николаевич Эстис
Born	(1986-09-20) 20 September 1986 (age 38) Moscow, USSR
Occupation	Writer, translator, journalist
Language	German, Russian
Citizenship	Switzerland
Alma mater	University of Hamburg
Genre	Short prose
Notable awards	Rolf Bossert Memorial Prize [de] (2020) Dortmund Stadtschreiber Prize [de] (2022) Kurt Tucholsky Prize (2023)
Website
estis.ch

Biography

Alexander Estis was born into the Jewish family of Soviet artists Nikolai Estis [ru] and Lidia Shulgina [ru]. From childhood, he studied drawing attending art schools and private lessons. In 1996, he moved with his parents to Hamburg.^[1][2][3]

He finished the Johannes Brahms High School in Pinneberg in 2004 and graduated from the Language Department of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Hamburg in 2010. He has taught drawing, Latin, German, and modern German literature at the Gymnasium Heidberg [de] (Hamburg) and Collège Calvin (Geneva) as well as medieval German literature and historical linguistics at the universities of Hamburg, Freiburg, Geneva, Zurich and the School of Management and Law at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences/ZHAW.^[1][2][3]

Since 2016, Estis has been living in Aarau. As an active participant in the literary process of the German-speaking community, he delivers lectures on literature, teaches courses in literary studies, and appears regularly on the radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur.^[1][2][3]

As a writer, Estis works mainly in the genre of flash fiction (aphorisms, lyrical and stage miniatures, glosses, micronarratives, epigrams, essays), combining elements of essayism and speculative fiction, satirical and tragic devices, as well as traditional and rhythmic prose. He collaborates with German publishers Hochroth [de]^[4] and parasitenpresse [de],^[5] at the same time contributing as a reviewer, observer and columnist to leading German-language media, including Die Zeit,^[6] Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,^[7] Frankfurter Rundschau,^[8] Neues Deutschland,^[9] Süddeutsche Zeitung,^[10] The European^[11] (Germany), Neue Zürcher Zeitung,^[12] WOZ Die Wochenzeitung^[13] (Switzerland). He is the author of seven short prose books: Utterances of a Russian (2019), Statements on the Cultural Sector (2019), Stories of Langenthal Words (2021), The Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Soul (2021), Lime Legends (2022), The Rondell (2022), Escapes (2022), BUGS (2024). His prosaic works, translations, critical and philological articles have been published in Sinn und Form (Germany), Lichtungen [de] (Austria), entwürfe [de] (Switzerland), Inostrannaya Literatura [ru], Literaturnaya Ucheba [ru], Nezavisimaya Gazeta (Russia) and other noted literary magazines and newspapers.^[1][2][3]

Alexander Estis is a member of the Association of Swiss Authors [de] and the German Exil-P.E.N. [de].^[1] He has won several literary prizes and grants, including the Rolf Bossert Memorial Prize [de] (Germany, 2020),^[14] the Lydia Eymann Scholarship [de] (Switzerland, 2020–2021),^[15] the Dortmund Stadtschreiber Prize [de] (Germany, 2022),^[16] the Kurt Tucholsky Prize (Germany, 2023),^[17] and the Dresden Stadtschreiber Prize (Germany, 2025).^[18]

Family

Alexander Estis is the son of artists Nikolai Estis [ru] (b. 1937) and Lidia Shulgina [ru] (1957–2000). His paternal half-sister and half-brother are museum specialist Elena Estis (b. 1958) and artist Oleg Estis [ru] (1964–1999).