Cuban writer and critic Severo Sarduy was BOTD in 1937. Born in Camagüey to a working class family of Spanish, African and Chinese heritage, he moved to Havana in 1956 to study medicine. Following the Cuban Revolution, he became a devoted Marxist, writing for left-wing newspapers. In 1960, he won a scholarship to study at the École du Louvre in Paris. He contributed to the avant-garde magazine Tel Quel, where he met and formed a relationship with editor François Wahl. When his scholarship expired, he remained in Paris, concerned over Castro’s persecution of gay men and never returned to Cuba. His first novel Gestos was published in 1963, followed by novels, poems and radio plays, all dealing openly with homosexuality and transvestism. His 1972 novel Cobra won the Medici Prize. He remained with Wahl until his death from an AIDS-related illness in 1993, aged 56. His memoir Pájaros de la playa was published after his death.