He was born in 1948 in Johannesburg (South Africa), where he was raised. In addition to writing and publishing in his country as well as abroad, where his name is already well-known, Dangor is President of the Nelson Mandela Foundation and Director of the Kagiso Trust, a development agency that provides humanitarian and educational aid for victims of apartheid.

A member of the Black Thoughts cultural group, in 1973 he was forced to leave his country for six years.  During this time, he taught South African literature and creative writing at the City University of New York.

He has published three poetry books, including Bulldozer (1989) and Private Voices (1992), the theatre piece Majiet (1986), the narrative book Waiting for Leila (1982), and the novel The Z Town Trilogy (1990).

Three of his works have been published in Spain: La maldición de Kafka (Kafka´s Curse) (1999), Fruta amarga (Bitter Fruit) (2003), and Trilogía de Z Town (The Z Town Trilogy) (2009). The first two have been translated into French and seven other languages. Bitter Fruit was a finalist for the Impar Award in 2003, and selected for the 2004 Man Broker Prize. The Z Town Trilogy is the first title of the Casa África Collection, which the institution publishes in collaboration with Ediciones El Cobre and which inaugurates Casa África´s editorial facet.

Sources: Casa África

Additional information:

• Nelson Mandela Foundation

• Kagiso Trust Agency

• Casa Africa Literature Collection