Erich Wolfgang Skwara

Erich Wolfgang Skwara was born in Salzburg in 1948. The Austrian writer, poet, essayist and literary scholar studied music history and Romance languages and literature in Paris, followed by German studies in the United States. From 1975 onward, he taught German language, literature and cultural studies at American universities; from 1986, he was a professor at San Diego State University. His works include the novels “Pest in Siena” (1976), “Eis auf der Brücke” (1991), “Die heimlichen Könige” (1995), “Zerbrechlichkeit” (2002) and “Mare Nostrum oder Ein Bahnhof für jene, die ankommen” (2019). He translated works by Rousseau, Flaubert, Thomas Wolfe, Tennessee Williams and Claude Lanzmann into German. He received the Hermann Lenz Prize in 2002 and was awarded the Austrian professorial title in 2003. In Paris, he once worked as private secretary to violinists Henryk Szeryng and Ivry Gitlis.