Born 1878 in Switzerland, Robert Walser was at various times in his life a bank teller, office clerk, scribe, house servant, machinist's assistant, and archivist. Although he wrote four novels and some poetry, his production consisted mainly of hundreds of small prose pieces. Being small was a key concern. His writing got smaller and smaller until, before he ceased writing altogether, he wrote a tiny script with letters about one millimeter high. By this time he had committed himself to a sanitarium where he remained for 27 years, mostly not writing. Always an avid taker of walks, Walser died in a snowdrift while out for a walk in 1956.
RETO SORG is the Director of the Robert Walser Centre in Bern.
Daniele Pantano is a Swiss poet, essayist, artist, editor, publisher, scholar, and literary translator born of German and Sicilian parentage in Langenthal, Canton of Bern. His individual poems, essays, and reviews, as well as his translations from the German by Michael Fehr, Robert Walser, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, and Georg Trakl, have appeared or are forthcoming in various journals, magazines, newspapers, and anthologies worldwide.Pantano's poetry has been translated into several languages, including Arabic, Albanian, Farsi, French, German, Italian, Kurdish, Russian, Slovenian, and Spanish. Pantano is the founding publisher and faculty advisor of The Lincoln Review (University of Lincoln), Contributing Editor at MAYDAY Magazine, and former editor and publisher of The Black Market Review (Edge Hill University), Härter, em: a review of text and image, The Adirondack Review, Saw Palm: Florida Literature and Art (University of South Florida), The M.A.G., and Poems Niederngasse: Die Zeitschrift für Lyrik. Pantano curates The Abandoned Playground, TAP Editions, and is founding Director of the Refugee Poetry Project and Co-Director of the International Refugee Poetry Network. He is also the Research Lead and Convenor of the Poetry, Poetics, and Literary Translation Research Group at the University of Lincoln, Member of the Art Committee at the Swiss Church in London, as well as Judge and Series Editor of The Rhine Translation Prize (Black Lawrence Press).
James Reidel is a poet, translator, and biographer. In addition to collections of his own poems, he has published translations of works by Georg Trakl, Franz Werfel, Robert Walser, Thomas Bernhard, and others. A fellow of the James Merrill House, he wrote Manon's World after nearly a decade of research.
Become an affiliate
