Giovanni Orelli (30 October 1928, in Bedretto, Switzerland – 3 December 2016, in Lugano) was a Swiss poet and writer who worked in Italian and the Ticinese dialect.
He spent much of his life in Lugano where - until he reached pension age - he was a teacher at the cantonal lyceum.
His writing career began in 1965 with the novel L'anno della valanga, which won the Veillon Prize.
He was also politically engaged, initially with the Independent Socialist Party, contributing to its weekly paper Politica nuova.
On 17 May 2012, he and Peter Bichsel were joint winners of the Schiller Grand Prize, both for their complete oeuvre.