What is Joseba Sarrionandia?
{{Orphan|date=May 2009}} [[File:Joseba Sarrionandia.jpg|thumb|right|Joseba Sarrionandia in 1985]] '''Joseba Sarrionandia Uribelarrea''' (born April 13, 1958 in [[Iurreta]], [[Biscay]], [[Basque Country]]) is a [[Basque people|Basque]] writer. He has written many [[poetry]] books, short stories, and novels. In 1985, Sarrionandia escaped from prison after he was put in for being a member of the Basque armed group [[Euskadi Ta Askatasuna|ETA]]. Since then, he has lived in secret but he still writes books. He is one of the best-known [[contemporary]] Basque writers. == Biography == Sarrionandia studied the [[Basque language]] and earned a PhD in Basque [[Philology]] from the [[University of Deusto]] in [[Bilbao]]. He was a Basque language teacher and taught [[phonetics]]. His writings were published in a number of Basque [[magazine]]s. He also translated books by [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]], [[Konstantino Kavafis]], [[T. S. Eliot]] and [[Fernando Pessoa]] into the Basque language. In 1980, Sarrionandia was arrested by Spanish police for being a member of ETA. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison. In 1985 he escaped from prison with [[Iñaki Pikaea]] during a concert in the jail with Basque singer [[Imanol Larzabal]]. They hid themselves inside a loudspeaker. The Basque rock group [[Kortatu]] wrote the song ''Sarri, Sarri'' in honor of this. He has lived in secret since his escape and writes a lot about [[exile]]. Sarrionandia has written books and poems which have been sung by different Basque singers. There's also an audio book called ''Hau da ene ondasun guzia'' of Sarrionandia reading his own poems as well as many songs performed by different singers. === Awards === * Ignacio Aldekoa Prize (1980) * Resurreccion Maria Azkue Prize (1980) * Bilbao City Council Prize (1980) * Spanish Literature critics', Basque Narrative Prize (1986 and 2001) * Euskadi Prize for Essay in Basque (2011) === One of his poems === '''The blacksmith slave''' <br />Captive in the rainforests of the West <br />they brought yo to Rome,