Born in 1964, brought up in Tunis and Tyrol, Raoul Schrott writes poetry and fiction, and is a prolific translator and essayist. His translation of the Iliad, together with ‘Homers Heimat’, a monograph challenging orthodox views of Homer’s cultural background, appeared in 2008. Much of his work reflects a keen interest in science, ‘Gehirn und Gedicht’ (2011), for example, co-authored with the neurologist Arthur Jacobs, offering a ‘neuropoetical’ study of the activity of the brain in writing and reading poetry.