Ralph Dutli, born in Schaffhausen/Switzerland in 1954, studied French and Russian Literature in Zurich and Paris. From 1982 to 1994 he lived in Paris, today he lives in Heidelberg/Germany, where he works as a freelance author, lyricist („NOVALIS IM WEINBERG“; Novalis in the vineyard, 2005), essayist („NICHTS ALS WUNDER“; Nothing but miracles, 2007), novelist („SOUTINES LETZTE FAHRT“; Soutine’s Last Journey, 2013) and translator of Ossip Mandelstam, Marina Tsvetaeva, Joseph Brodsky. Editor of the ten-volume Ossip Mandelstam complete edition and author of the Mandelstam biography „MEINE ZEIT, MEIN TIER“ (My Age, my Beast, 2003).

He has received major prizes and distinctions, including the Johann Heinrich Voss Prize awarded by the German Academy for Language and Literature.