Erika Burkart was born in Aarau, Switzerland, in 1922. Throughout her career she published over 24 collections of poetry, 8 prose works, and was awarded numerous literary prizes, including the Conrad-Ferdinand- Meyer-Preis (1961) and the Gottfried-Keller-Preis (1992). She was the only woman ever to have been awarded Switzerland's highest literary prize, der Grosser Schillerpreis (2005). She passed away on April 14, 2010.
