Having unleashed controversial discussion since the release of his first autobiographic oeuvre “Peeling The Onion”, Günter Grass is still one of the most influential contemporary authors.

Whatever one might think of him joining the Waffen-SS as a seventeen year-old, one cannot deny neither his crucial role in reprocessing the nazi history in post-war Germany nor the prominent quality of his work including poetry, prose and drama as well as graphic and plastic art.
Born in October 1927, Grass recently celebrated his 83. birthday.
some information about his latest work:

http://steidl.de/pages/de/buecher/literatur/6019-grimms-woerter.html

Günter Grass interview from 1965 (mind the cigarette paper!):