Alrfed Kolleritsch (1931-2020) was born in Brunnsee in the Austrian state of Styria. He studied History, German and Philosophy at the University of Graz, where, in 1964, he presented a doctoral thesis on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. He taught at a grammar school in Graz from 1964 until 1993, and was a founder member of the Graz cultural centre 'Forum Stadtpark' in 1959, becoming its president in 1968, as well as a founder member of the Graz Authors' Association in 1973, to which he remained attached until 1983. He was editor of Austria's most influential literary magazine, manuskripte , a pioneering journal, which he co-founded in 1960.

His own first work appeared in 1958, and he subsequently published poetry, as well as novels ( Die Pfirsichtöter , 1972; Die grüne Seite , 1974; Allemann, 1989), film scripts, radio texts and children's books. His many poetry collections include the volumes Augenlust (Eyes' Desire, 1986), Gegenwege (Opposing Paths, 1991), In den Tälern der Welt (In the Valleys of the World, 1999), Summe der Tage (Sum of the Days, 2001), Befreiung des Empfindens (The Liberation of Feeling, 2004) and Tröstliche Parallelen (Comforting Parallels, 2006), and he has won several awards for his work, including the Petrarca Prize (1978), the Georg Trakl Prize (1987) and the Horst Bienek Prize for Poetry (2005).