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.

1987 International Prize of Portorož for Essays

1988 State Subsidy for Literature by the Austrian Department of Education and Cultural Affairs

1989 Buchprämie des Bundesministeriums für Unterricht und Kunst

1992 Subsidy for Literature by the City of Salzburg

1994 Buchprämie des Bundesministeriums für Unterricht und Kunst

1994 Österreichischer Staatspreis für Kulturpublizistik

1997 European Essay Prize Charles Veillon for Das Europäische Alphabet

1998 Bruno-Kreisky-Preis for the Political Book for Ins unentdeckte Österreich

2001 Award of the Austrian Book Sellers for Tolerant Thinking and Acting

2004 René-Marcic-Preis

2005 Manès-Sperber-Preis Vienna

2005 Vilenica International Literary Prize

2006 Georg Dehio Book Prize

2007 Honorary doctorate in philosophy from Salzburg University

2007 Mitteleuropa-Preis

2010 Johann-Heinrich-Merck-Preis

2018 Jean Améry Prize for European essay-writing

2019 Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class, Austrian Decoration for Science and Art

2022 Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding