YSTERKOEI-BLUES, versamelde gedigte, 1964-1975

424pp., paperback, Reprint, Cape Town, (2001) 2019

This collection includes all the poetry collections published before Breyten Breytenbach's imprisonment in 1975, as well as some unpublished poems, Skryt, and short prose works from Katastrofes.

Breyten Breytenbach was born in 1939 in Bonnievale. In the 1960s he left South Africa for Paris. During a visit to South Africa in 1975 under a false passport he was arrested on a charge of terrorism and sentenced to nine years' imprisonment. His work includes poetry, novels, plays and essays. He was awarded the 1984 Hertzog Prize for poetry for Yk, but refused to accept it. He received the 1999 Hertzog Prize for poetry for Oorblyfsels and Papierblom. His most recent collection of poetry, Die windvanger (2007), was awarded the University of Johannesburg Prize, the Hertzog Prize and the WA Hofmeyr Prize. He currently divides his time between Europe, Africa and America. He is involved with the Gorée Institute in Dakar, Senegal, and Columbia University in New York where he lectures in creative writing.