MARIO BETTI was born in 1942 in Lucca, Italy. After studying and working in Italy, Spain, Switzerland and England, he moved to Germany. He taught for many years at a Waldorf School, where he became head of art education, and between 1985 and 2001 was a lecturer in educational anthropology, art history and anthroposophy at Alanus University in Alfter, near Bonn. Between 2001 and 2005 he was a lecturer at the Institute for Waldorf Education in Stuttgart. His stories, essays and poems have been published in Italy and Germany.