Urs Widmer (1938-2014) was a Swiss novelist, playwright, essayist, and short story writer and the cofounder of Verlag der Autoren, an author-owned publishing house focusing on texts related to the performing arts. His other books include The Blue Soda Siphon and My Father's Book, also published by Seagull Books. Donal McLaughlin specializes in translating contemporary Swiss fiction. He has translated more than one hundred writers for the New Swiss Writing anthologies.
