José F.A. Oliver, of Andalusian origin, was born in 1961 in Hausach, in the Black Forest, where the poet, essayist and translator still works and lives. He has been awarded the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize, the Cultural Prize of the State of Baden-Württemberg, the Basler Poetry Prize, and the Liliencron Lecturership at the University of Kiel. Further poetics lectureships took him to MIT (Cambridge / USA), TU Dresden, University of Munich, and University of Bayreuth. His publications include Fahrtenschreiber (2010), sorpresa, unverhofft – Lorca, 13 Einschreibungen (2015), 21 Gedichte aus Istanbul, 4 Briefe und 10 Fotow:orte (2016), wundgewähr (2018, together with Mikael Vogel), and Zum Bleben, wie zum Wandern – Hölderlin, theurer Freund. 20 Gedichte und ein verzweifeltes Lied (2020). In the USA, he published sandscript: Selected Poetry 1987–2018 in 2018. Oliver translates from Spanish, German and English, including works by Federico García Lorca, Vicente Alexandre, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Joachim Sartorius, Raphael Urweider, Anja Utler, Albert Ostermeier, and Ilija Trojanow. He is the curator of the Hausacher Reading Lenz Literature Festival, which he founded.
 
José F. A. Oliver was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from August to December 2013.