Bessie Head was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in 1937.
Born during a time when interracial relationships were illegal, Head was given up for adoption as a baby and only discovered her true parentage while attending St. Monica's Home for Coloured Girls. After graduating, she taught briefly as a teacher before moving to Cape Town and then Johannesburg where she worked as a journalist from the age of 21.
In 1960, she was briefly arrested for her involvement in the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC). During this time, she and her husband continued to write articles, most often in The New African. After separating from her husband, Head relocated with her son to Serowe, Botswana, where most of her works were set and written.
In 1977, she attended the University of Iowa's International Writing Program, a prestigious program that accepted only a small number of writers from all over the world.
