Wolfgang Ratz
Encyclopedia
Wolfgang Ratz is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
) is an Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and singer-songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
.
Biography
Wolfgang Ratz was born in Bilbao in the Basque CountryBasque Country (autonomous community)
The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....
. During his youth he lived in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria. He studied translation
Translation studies
Translation studies is an interdiscipline containing elements of social science and the humanities, dealing with the systematic study of the theory, the description and the application of translation, interpreting or both these activities....
for Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, as well as Graphical Arts at the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
. Ratz works as a writer, translator of literature, artist and singer-songwriter in Vienna. He writes poetry, narrative prose and critical reviews. He contributed in German and Spanish to literary magazines (e.g. Literarisches Österreich, Die Furche, Literaricum, O Correo Galego, Diario de Querétaro) and published in anthologies. In 1991 he was awarded the 3rd Poetry Prize of the PEN Club
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
of Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein
The Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over , and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan...
, in 1996 the mención de honor at the Festival of Literature of the Latin American magazin Xicóatl, and in 2006 the 2nd Prize of the International Poetry Competition - German of Dublin's Feile Filíochta.
Wolfgang Ratz is a member of the writers' association Grazer Autorenversammlung
Grazer Autorenversammlung
The Grazer Autorinnen Autorenversammlung was founded under the name of Grazer Autorenversammlung in March 1973 and is one of the two major Austrian writers' association . H. C. Artmann was its first president...
, founding member of ALA (Latin American Authors in Austria) and a former board member of the Austrian Writers' Association Österreichischer Schriftstellerverband
Österreichischer Schriftstellerverband
The Austrian Writers' Association has been founded in 1945 and was thus one of the first Austrian professional associations after World War II. The association fosters the communication between writers and the contact between authors and readers and is located in Vienna, Austria...
.
Publications
- Hoja roja/Zerrissenes Blatt, poetry Spanish and German (with Javier Tafur), Cuadernos negros, Calarcá 2007
- El idioma de las hormigas/Die Sprache der Ameisen, poetry Spanish and German, Vitrales de Alejandría, Caracas 2004, ISBN 980-6480-23-6
- Poesía entre dos mundos: antología ALA, poetry (Ed.), Edition Doppelpunkt, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-85273-177-1
- Zimt und Metall, poetry, Verlag G. Grasl, Baden bei Wien 2002, ISBN 3-85098-259-9
- 1492-keine Wahrheit ist auch eine Klarheit, drama (Theater group CCC put the drama on stage in Spanish), Vienna 1992