South African writer Damon Galgut was BOTD in 1963. Born in Pretoria during the height of South Africa’s apartheid regime, he studied drama at the University of Cape Town. He published his first novel A Sinless Season when he was 17, exploring the sexually charged friendship between three teenage boys at a reform school. His 1991 novel The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs won the Central News Agency Literary Award, followed by The Quarry which was later adapted into a film. He found an international following with his novel The Good Doctor, which was shortlisted for the 2003 Booker Prize. His 2010 novel In A Strange Room, a triptych of stories exploring gay sexual obsession, illness and alienation in modern-day Africa and India, was also shortlisted for the Booker. His 2014 book Arctic Summer reimagined the life of gay writer E. M. Forster, focusing on Forster’s years in India and Egypt. He won the 2021 Booker Prize for his novel The Promise, a harrowing inter-generational saga of a white South African family who refuse to honour a promise to their elderly Black housekeeper. Openly gay since forever, his relationship status is unknown. He lives in Cape Town.