Richard Obermayr was born on August 22nd, 1970 in the Upper Austrian town of Ried. He studied in Vienna where he still lives today. He has published numerous texts in literary journals such as "manuskripte", "kolik" and "Lettre". His first novel "Der gefälschte Himmel" (Fake Heaven) was published in 1998 by the Residenz publishing house. Obermayr a is member of the authors’ community of Graz and received numerous scholarships.

The HALMA grant for Richard Obermayr was made possible by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture.