Raúl Zurita was born in Santiago de Chile in 1951, where he spent his childhood and school years.

In 1967 he began his studies of Civil Engeneering at the Universidad Frederico Santa Maria in Valparaiso as well as Mathematics at the School of Technical Engeneering in Santiago. When on 11 September 1973 Chile’s socialist’s government was overthrown by a military coup, Raúl Zurita was arrested and detained with almost one thousand others in the hold of a ship; a traumatic experience for the then 22-years-old.

Zurita spent four years earning his living as a computer salesman during a period of financial hardship. The first of his poems to be published appeared in 1975 in “Manuscritos”, the Philosophy Faculty’s publication. Four years later “Purgatorio” was published, the first part of a poetic trilogy which Zurita would not conclude for another fourteen years. The book became a huge success, but dispair in the face of the dictatorship’s regime of terror gradually took hold. No longer wanting to witness the pain surrounding him, he attempted to burn his eyes with ammonium acid but fortunately failed.

In 1982 the second part of Zurita’s poetic trilogy entitled “Anteparaiso” was published. Completion of this book went hand in hand with the project to have 15 verses of the poem written by five aeroplanes in eight-kilometre high letters across the sky over New York. These verses which Zurita had written to draw attention to the minorities of the world could be seen throughout large parts of New York.

In 1989 Zurita was awarded the Pablo Neruda Prize for his lifetime poetical achievements. During the Expo ’92 in Sevilla his works were chosen to represent Chilean poetry.