ROBERT WALSER (1878–1956) was born into a German-speaking family in Biel, Switzerland. He left school at fourteen and led a wandering, precarious existence while writing his poems, novels, and vast numbers of the “prose pieces” that became his hallmark. In 1933 he abandoned writing and entered a sanatorium—where he remained for the rest of his life.

TOM WHALEN is a novelist, short-story writer, poet, critic, and the co-editor of the Robert Walser issue of the Review of Contemporary Fiction.

NICOLE KÖNGETER is a freelance translator and teacher of English and German in southwest Germany.

ANNETTE WIESNER’s translations of Robert Walser have appeared in Connecticut Review, Kestrel, and Witness.