Christoph Ransmayr

Christoph Ransmayr (born 20 March 1954) is an Austrian writer.

Born in Wels, Upper Austria Ransmayr grew up in Roitham near Gmunden and the Traunsee. From 1972 to 1978 he studied philosophy and ethnology in Vienna. He worked there as cultural editor for the newspaper Extrablatt from 1978 to 1982, also publishing articles and essays in GEO, TransAtlantik and Merian. After his novel Die letzte Welt was published in 1988 he did extensive traveling in Ireland, Asia, North and South America. In 1994 he moved to West Cork, Ireland, as a friend offered to lease him a splendid house on the Atlantic coast for a very affordable rent. In 1997 Ransmayr read his short story Die dritte Luft oder Eine Bühne am Meer, written for this occasion, as a keynote speech for the Salzburg Festival. After his marriage in the Spring of 2006 Ransmayr returned to live in Vienna.

• 1986-1988 Elias Canetti Fellowship, see also Elias Canetti
• 1988 Anton Wildgans Prize
• 1992 Großer Literaturpreis der Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste
• 1995 Franz-Kafka-Preis, see also Franz Kafka
• 1995 Franz-Nabl-Preis
• 1996 Aristeion Prize for the novel Morbus Kitahara
• 1997 Solothurner Literaturpreis
• 1997 Kulturpreis des Landes Oberösterreich
• 1998 Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis, see also Friedrich Hölderlin
• 2001 Nestroy-Theaterpreis, see also Johann Nestroy
• 2004 Bertolt-Brecht-Literaturpreis
• 2004 Großer Österreichischer Staatspreis für Literatur
• 2010 28° Preis Gambrinus "Giuseppe Mazzotti"