Joachim Sartorius
Germany
Born in 1946 in Fürth, Joachim Sartorius grew up in Tunis and lives in Berlin and Syracuse. After receiving his doctoral degree in law in 1973, he worked in the diplomatic service until 1986, e.g. as a cultural advisor in New York, an information officer in Ankara, and finally as an envoy in Nikosia (Cypress). In the following years, he directed the artists program of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), served as General Secretary of the Goethe Institute in Munich, and, from 2001 to 2011, he was Artistic Director of the Berlin Festspiele. He is a poet and a translator of American poetry, especially of the works of William Carlos Williams, John Ashbery, and Wallace Stevens. He has published collections of poetry, numerous works created in collaboration with visual artists, travel stories, and has edited important anthologies and handbooks.
For the Greeks 2,500 years ago, Syracuse on the island of Sicily was the New York of the Mediterranean. Aeschylus premiered his plays here. In his most recent book,
28th Leukerbad International Literary Festival:
