SAID, whose real name was Said Mirhadi, published only under his first name for security reasons. He was born in Tehran in 1947 and lived in Munich since 1965. He studied political science in Munich. In 2004, SAID received German citizenship. He has received several awards for his literary work and for his commitment to politically persecuted people, including the Premio Letterario Internazionale “Jean Monnet” and the German PEN Center’s Hermann-Kesten Medal. He served as president of the German PEN Center and director of the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN. In May 2021, SAID died of a heart attack at the age of 73.