Jürg Amann was born in Winterthur, Switzerland, in 1947. Having studied German philology, European folk literature and journalism at the University of Zurich and the Freie Universität in Berlin, he worked as a journalist in Berlin, then from 1974 to 1976 in Zurich, and during this time was also a script editor at the Schauspielhaus Zurich. Since 1976 he has lived in Zurich as a freelance writer. Jürg Amann has received many awards for his work. In 1983, he was awarded the ›Ingeborg Bachmann Prize‹, in 1983 the ›Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Prize‹, and in 1989 and 2002 the ›Swiss Schiller Institute Award‹.