Life
Schweikert was born on 15 July 1964 in Lörrach, southern Germany. She published her debut, Erdnüsse. Totschlagen, a collection of short stories, in 1994. The book garnered immediate attention, and Schweikert "caused a sensation as a powerful voice for a new, young generation in Swiss literature", inviting comparison with writers Peter Weber and Urs Richle. She is best known for her novels Augen zu (Eyes Shut) (1998), Ohio (2005) and How we get older (2015). She was president of the Suisseculture association for four years, and mentored young writers at the Literatur Institute (Bern Academy of the Arts) in Biel or at the Young Literature Lab in Zurich.
Schweikert was awarded a number of prizes, including the Swiss Schiller Foundation Prize in 1999, the Art Prize of the City of Zurich in 2016 and the Solothurn Literature Prize, also in 2016. Her stories have been described as "elementary, anarchic, with an irrepressible zest for life and an impetuous narrative power". She has been credited with creating "a great encyclopedia of the unhappy family – which is also an equally great declaration of love for the family".
Schweikert was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer in 2016, which she used as a springboard for her last novel, Days Like Dogs, published in 2019. She died on 4 June 2023 at the age of 58, from cancer. Schweikert was married to filmmaker Eric Bergkraut. She was survived by her husband and her five sons.
