Luis Sepúlveda, born in Chile in 1949, was a novelist, journalist, and playwright who once worked in the Amazon for UNESCO. Politically involved with left-wing movements, he was imprisoned, tortured and sentenced to twenty-eight years in prison after the military coup in Chile, but was able to go into exile thanks to the efforts of Amnesty International. He worked as a press correspondent in Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, and Central America, and was an activist for Greenpeace and other humanitarian causes. He received numerous prizes, including the International Grinzane Cavour Award, the Tigre Juan, the France Culture Etrangêre Award and the Taormina Award for Literary Excellence. He died in Spain in 2020.