Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
breyten breytenbachlatest news & developments
South African poet, writer and painter Breyten Breytenbach in a studio in Paris. He was exiled in France after being jailed due to his anti-apartheid stance. (Photo: Julio Donoso/Getty Images)

Breyten Breytenbach: Cosmopolitan anarchist from the Boland

The poet and painter was one of the greatest wordsmiths in Afrikaans

Poet and wrtier Breyten Breytenbach in Paris, France, 1982. (Photo by Patrick SICCOLI/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Anthony Akerman on the warmth of Breyten Breytenbach in exile

Akerman’s memoir reflects on exile and meeting Breytenbach

War is the backdrop of The Shadow King, by Maaza Mengiste, which has been shortlisted for the Booker. (Photo: Nina Subin)

Maaza Mengiste: ‘We are now catching up with the past’

As war drums beat again in Ethiopia, author Maaza Mengiste finds new language to memorialise the Second Italo-Ethiopian War

Madagascan presidential candidate Robinson Jean Louis speaks to journalists prior to a rally in Antananarivo on October 26 2013.

Oh, for more meat on these bones

Breyten Breytenbach’s work is celebrated in a study deserving of more context, conviction and heft.

Madagascan presidential candidate Robinson Jean Louis speaks to journalists prior to a rally in Antananarivo on October 26 2013.

Dancing in Other Words: Poetry in motion

A conceptually explosive poetry event will take place on the Spier wine estate outside Stellenbosch on May 10 and 11.

Listen to SA poet

Breytenbach: ‘This is a Season’

Listen to SA poet, novelist and founding member of the Sestigers, Breyten Breytenbach, reading one of his poems at the M&G Literary Festival.

New pressure on UJ to sever Israel ties

Archbishop Desmond has added his voice to calls for the University of Johannesburg to sever academic ties with Israel’s Ben-Gurion University.

Prominent poet denounces crime in SA

Breyten Breytenbach has unleashed his pen against crime in his homeland in a US magazine, prompting a rebuke from Nelson Mandela’s office.

A stunted af(fair)

If the Cape Town Book Fair is to mean something beyond an exercise in retailing it needs to seize opportunities to be unique, writes Darryl Accone.

Imagining the riddles of our time

An edited extract from Breyten Breytenbach’s speech at the Time of the Writer festival.