Intimate Stranger

"The greatest Afrikaner poet of this generation. . . . No one elevated the Boer language to such pure beauty and wielded it so devastatingly against the apartheid regime."- The New YorkerThis eclectic and generous work full of wisdom and wit is addressed to a young writer. Breyten Breytenbachrs"s candid and provocative reflections on reading and writing guide without guiding, open mental channels, surprise, and inspire. A stirring glimpse into the mind of an artist.An outspoken human rights activist, Breyten Breytenbach is a poet, novelist, playwright, memoirist, and painter. He received the Alan Paton Prize in 1994 and the prestigious Hertzog Prize for his collection of poetry Windcatcher in 2008.

An outspoken advocate for social justice, Breyten Breytenbach, is a poet, novelist, memorist, essayist and visual artist. His paintings, drawings, and collages have been exhibited around the world. In 1994 Breytenbach received the Alan Paton Award for Return to Paradise. He won The prestigious Hertzog Prize for Poetry for Papierblom in 1999, and again in 2008 for Die Windvanger (Windcatcher), for which he also received the University of Johannesburg Prize. Breytenbach is the author of A Season in Paradise, The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist, All One Horse, Mouroir, Notes from the Middle World, Dog Heart, The Memory of Birds in Times of Revolution, Lady One, and Voice Over: a nomadic conversation with Mahmoud Darwish, among others.