On Thursday, February 12, 2004, Austrian writer Raoul Schrott was inaugurated as the new city writer of Mainz. ZDF program director Thomas Bellut, Mainz mayor Jens Beutel, and cultural affairs director Peter Krawietz welcomed the 2004 award winner at the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz.

Raoul Schrott has made a name for himself as a novelist, lyricist, poetologist, translator, and editor. His publications include the novel Finis Terrae (1995), the novella Die Wüste Lop Nor (2000), and most recently the critically acclaimed novel Tristan da Cunha oder die Hälfte der Erde (2003). The poetry anthology Die Erfindung der Poesie (The

Invention of Poetry, 1997), which he edited, became a bestseller, as did his poetry collection Tropen (Tropics, 1998). Schrott also distinguished himself as an eloquent translator, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott.

Awards (selection)

• 1989 DAAD scholarship, Berlin; Tyrol Culture Prize
• 1990 Young Talent Scholarship from the BMUK, Vienna
• 1992 Literature Scholarship from the State of Tyrol
• 1993 Austrian State Scholarship
• 1995 Radio Play of the Year (Prize of the Frankfurt Academy of Arts)
• Leonce and Lena Prize
• 1996 Rauriser Literature Prize
• Hölderlin Advancement Award
• Berlin Literature Prize
• Robert Musil Scholarship
• 1998 Sebetia Ter Culture Prize of the G7 Conference in Naples
• Liliencron Lectureship, Kiel
• Literature lectureship at ETH Zurich
• 1999 Peter Huchel Poetry Prize
• 2002 Literature Promotion Prize, Austria
• 2004 Mainz City Writer