Breyten Breytenbach (South Africa, 1939) is a writer, poet, painter and a famous anti-apartheid activist. He settled in 1962 in Paris, where he debuted two years later as a poet and visual artist. In 1975 he visited his native South Africa and was arrested for political terrorism. He spent seven years in prison and wrote the novel about this The true confessions of a white terrorist (1984). After his release, he returned to Paris and became a Frenchman. In 2008, Breytenbach received the Hertzog prize, the most prestigious literary prize in South Africa. In 2009 he received the honorable Max Jacob Prize for his poetry and in 2017 he was awarded the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award.
