Author Biography
Mario Wirz was born in Marburg, Germany, in 1956 and worked as an author, director, and actor. In 1988 he moved to Berlin to be a free-lance writer. His work includes numerous plays, collections of poems and short stories, and novels. His prose works include Es ist sp't, ich kann nicht atmen: Ein n'chtlicher Bericht (It's Late, I Can't Breathe: A Nocturnal Narrative), 1992, Biographie eines lebendigen Tages, 1994, and Umarmungen am Ende der Nacht, 1999. His works of poetry include Und Traum zerzaust dein Haar, 1982, All die vielen Nachtschritte, 1984, Ich rufe die W'lfe, 1993, Das Herz dieser Stunde, 1997, Sieben Leben hat die Woche, 2003, and Sturm vor der Stille, 2006. It's Late, I Can't Breathe is the first of his works to be published in English translation. The translator, Alfred G. Meyer, was a professor of political science at the University of Michigan from 1966 to 1990.
