Skármeta studied Philosophy and Literature at the University of Chile and the Columbia University in the city of New York. He has worked as Professor for Contemporary Latin-American Literature at the University of Chile and as designated professor for Language and Literature at the Washington University in St. Louis/Missouri, where he annually gives lectures on Latin-American literature.
Antonio Skármeta is the author of a multitude of novels and stories of great poetic character. A supporter of Salvador Allende, he had to leave the country after the coup in 1973, and lived in exile in Berlin. He wrote scripts for German films (for Peter Lilienthal amongst others).
In 1989, Skármeta returned to Chile. After the first democratic elections following the dictatorship, he was nominated for a three-year post as Chilean Ambassadorto Germany. He presented a Chilean literary television show that was popular beyond the borders of his homeland in which he introduced new books. His most famous work is the novel »Burning Patience«, which he himself filmed in 1983 for ZDF, but which garnered world-wide success and an Oscar with Michael Radford’s 1994 adaptation under the title of »The Postman«.
