From the former student, Evie Wyld, we come to a Professor at Bath Spa University: Aminatta Forna, born in Glasgow, Scotland, UK is holding the position of Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University next to her current post of Sterling Brown Distinguished Visiting Professor at Williams College, Massachusetts in the US. And, and this is in reference to the current subject of The English Book Club that I run, she is also winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 'Best Book Award' of 2011 with her novel The Memory of Love.
When I learned about the various places she lived throughout her past life I was wondering, referring to my post in May this year, which place she would call 'home', which place she would 'return to': Aminatta was raised in Sierra Leone, being her father's background, and Britain, being her mother's background, with periods in Iran, Thailand and Zambia. Presently, she lives in London but regularly spends time in Sierra Leone where she has been running a school project, the Rogbonko Project, since 2003.
She also worked for the BBC as reporter and document maker and is known for several documentaries on Africa. One of my favourites: The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu, the documentary on "its long-hidden legacy of hundreds of thousands of ancient manuscripts" (see 'link' to the BBC).
How to present an author showered with awards: her first book The Devil that Danced on the Water (2002) was runner up to the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2003 and chosen for the Barnes & Nobel Discover New Writers Series. Her second novel Ancestor Stones (2006) was winner of the Hurston Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction, the LiBeraturpreis in Germany and the Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize, additionally nominated for the International Dublin IMPAC Award. The Memory of Love (2010), Aminatta's third novel, was not only winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 'Best Book Award', as mentioned above, but also short-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2011, the IMPAC Award in 2012, the Warwick Prize 2011 and nominated for the European Prize for Fiction in 2013. Her latest novel, The Hired Man had only been published in March 2013 and already highly acclaimed.
But it is obvious that Aminatta does not work and write for praise or prizes - she is too much concerned and involved about the various forms of private and official conflicts. When I learned about her background, her father had been imprisoned twice and hanged in 1975, and her works, the way she tries to 'handle' guilt, shame, anger and loss after wartimes, it all reminded me of Tahmima Anam (presented here on May 2012) also trying to come to terms with the "wounds that war leaves on souls" (quote by Tahmima, see also May 2012) or as someone once said: "War does not end with a peace contract"(unfortunately, I cannot recall who said or wrote it).
At the moment, I am reading her third novel, The Memory of Love: about the various characters and their lives in Africa and how they and history weave together leaving no one untouched, not even the expats, thinking to be only observers or onlookers. It's not because the book received all the prizes and praise that I am reading the novel at the moment. My main interest in reading the novel is to be prepared when she will be part of the Dutch literary festival "Writers Unlimited" in January 2014 in Den Haag. Check their site for dates and schedules. I am sure that it will be an interesting meeting with an outstanding author! Expect more from her on my blog.