Karl-Markus Gauß

Gauß has a degree for German Philology and History from the University of Salzburg. He very early published literary essays, primarily in the magazine Wiener Tagebuch (Viennese Diary). Since 1991, Gauß is editor in chief of the literary magazine Literatur und Kritik, published by the Salzburg publishing house Otto Müller Verlag. In addition, he writes articles and essays for Austrian, German and Swiss newspapers and magazines, such as Die Zeit, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Salzburger Nachrichten, and Die Presse. In 2006, Karl-Markus Gauß was accepted as member of the German Academy of Language and Poetry.

Primarily, Karl-Markus Gauß writes essays. One of his main topics are ethnic minorities, some of which aren't sometimes known to the readers even by their name, such as the Aromanians, Roma, Arbëreshë and the Sephardim. Other important topics are Central and South Eastern Europe. Gauß visited these countries on several occasions, usually jointly with the photographer Kurt Kaindl. His cultural reports and essays describe cultural encounters and intellectual exchanges with the writers of those countries, but also with people "like me and you", on the streets and in pubs. Gauß uses his books very often to present and promote writers from Central and Eastern Europe, who are relatively unknown in Austria and Germany.