Klaus Merz is widely considered the preeminent living poet in Switzerland. Aside from being a poet, Merz is also a very well known novelist in the German-language world.

• His books have won many German and Swiss literary prizes.
• A German-language documentary movie, Merzluft, of his life and work was released in 2015. A virtual reality movie, LOS, inspired by Merz' 2005 collection of short fictions with the same title, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020.