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born 5 July 1955 in Zwettl/ Lower Austria |
| © Tom Langdon/ Visual Support |
| 1973 – 1980 | studies Philosophy, theatre studies and Germanic philology in Vienna |
| 1976 – 1992 | co-editor of the literary journal "Wespennest" |
| 1980 | PhD for his thesis “Die Ästhetik des Novalis” |
| 1989 – 1990 | writer-in-residence and visiting professor at Oberlin College and Bowling Green State University, Ohio |
| 1994 | scholarship from the Deutscher Literaturfonds; literature scholarship from the federal state of Lower Austria |
| since 1996 | Professor of Literature and Aesthetics at the University of Leipzig |
| since 2001 | managing director of the most influential creative writing school in the German-speaking world Deutsches Literaturinstitut Leipzig |
| 2006 | visiting professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago |
| lives in Leipzig |
