Claudio Magris was born in Italy in 1939.

He has published numerous essays and critical studies on writers such as Wilhelm Heinse, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Joseph Roth. A selection of his texts, Itaca e oltre, was published in 1982. Magris also authored the novella Illazioni su una sciabola, the play Stadelmann, and the novel Un altro mare. His book Danube was published in the United States to great acclaim in 1989. He received the Premio Strega in 1997, for Microcosmi (which appeared in English in 2001 as Microcosms) and the 2004 Prince of Asturias Prize. Essays from 1974 to 1998 were collected in Utopia e disincanto and his most recent work is the 2001 play La Mostra.

Magris lives in Trieste.