Aminatta Forna

Aminatta Forna

Aminatta Forna at the awards ceremony of the LiBeraturpreis 2008 for her book "Ancestor Stones".

Forna in Frankfurt am Main, 2008
Born

1964 (age 51–52)


Glasgow, Scotland

Occupation Author, commentator
Alma mater University College London
Notable awards Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book Award 2011, 2014 Windham–Campbell Literature Prize (Fiction)
Spouse Simon Westcott
Website
aminattaforna.com

Aminatta Forna (born 1964) is a Scottish writer. She is the author of a memoir, The Devil that Danced on the Water,[1][2] and three novels: Ancestor Stones (2006),[3] The Memory of Love (2010)[4] and The Hired Man (2013).[5][6] Her novel The Memory of Love was awarded the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for "Best Book" in 2011,[7][8] and was also shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction.[9] Forna is Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and was, until recently, Sterling Brown Distinguished Visiting Professor at Williams College in Massachusetts.[10][11]

On 7 March 2014, Aminatta Forna was announced as the recipient of the 2014 Windham–Campbell Literature Prize (Fiction).[12][13][14]

In 2015 Forna was part of the judging panel which awarded the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award to Yiyun Li.[15] The finalists for the 2016 Neustadt International Prize for Literature were announced in May 2015.[16][17] The list included Forna and writers, poets and playwrights from around the world. The majority of the finalists were women writers.[16][18]

Background

Forna was born in Bellshill, Scotland,[19] in 1964 to a Sierra Leonean father, Mohamed Forna, and a Scottish mother, Maureen Christison. When Forna was six months old the family travelled to Sierra Leone, where Mohamed Forna worked as a physician. He later became involved in politics and entered government, only to resign citing a growth in political violence and corruption. Between 1970 and 1973 he was imprisoned and declared an Amnesty Prisoner of Conscience. Mohamed Forna was hanged on charges of treason in 1975.[20][21] The events of Forna's childhood and her investigation into the conspiracy surrounding her father's death are the subject of the memoir The Devil that Danced on the Water.[22]

Forna studied law at University College London and was a Harkness Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2013 she assumed a post as Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.[23]

Between 1989 and 1999 Forna worked for the BBC, both in radio and television, as a reporter and documentary maker in the spheres of arts and politics. She is also known for her Africa documentaries: Through African Eyes (1995),[24] Africa Unmasked (2002)[25] and The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu (2009).[26] Forna is also a board member of the Royal National Theatre[27] and a judge for The Man Booker International Prize 2013.[28][29]

Aminatta Forna is married to the furniture designer Simon Westcott and lives in south-east London.[30]

Work

Forna's work, both fiction and non-fiction, is typically concerned with the prelude and aftermath to war, memory, the conflict between private narratives and official histories, and examines how the gradual accretion of small, seemingly insignificant acts of betrayal find expression in full-scale horror.[31][32] In her fiction she employs multiple voices and shifting timelines.

The Devil that Danced on the Water

The Devil that Danced on the Water, Forna's first book, received wide critical acclaim across the UK and the US. It was broadcast on BBC Radio and went on to become runner-up for the UK's Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.[33]

Ancestor Stones

Ancestor Stones, Forna's second book and first novel, won the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for debut fiction in the US[34] and the Liberaturpreis[35] in Germany and was nominated for the International IMPAC Award. The Washington Post named Ancestor Stones one of the most important books of 2006. In 2007, Forna was named by Vanity Fair magazine as one of Africa's best new writers.[36]

The Memory of Love

The Memory of Love, winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book Award 2011,[37] was described by the judges as "a bold, deeply moving and accomplished novel" and Forna as "among the most talented writers in literature today";[8][38] The Memory of Love was also shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2012,[39] the Orange Prize for Fiction 2011[40][41] and the Warwick Prize for Writing.[42]

Girl Rising

Aminatta Forna was one of 10 writers contributing to 10x10 Girl Rising.[43][44] The film tells the stories of 10 girls in 10 developing countries. The girls' stories are written by 10 acclaimed writers and narrated by 10 world-class actresses, including Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Freida Pinto and Cate Blanchett.[45] The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2013.[46]

The Hired Man

The Hired Man, Forna's third novel, was published to wide acclaim in the UK in March 2013. In the United States The Millions listed The Hired Man as one of the most anticipated books of the second half of 2013, with the Boston Globe stating that "not since "Remains of the Day" has an author so skilfully revealed the way history's layers are often invisible to all but its participants, who do what they must to survive".[33][47]

Critics further praised Forna's forensic research and unmatched ability to evoke atmosphere, place and powerful emotions in explaining "the horrors of our times, those that will follow us to the grave" but also of exposing how we observe, participate and play a role in events.[30][32][48][49][50][51] International praise referred to the novel's bewitching pacing, precision, characterisations and atmposphere,[52][53] with India's The Sunday Guardian in particular singling out The Hired Man as "A harrowing story, not so much of forgiveness, but of painful forbearing, of how we learn to live with our enemies, the people who have caused us the most grievous harm, how we exist and work side-by-side with them because the new ways of the world favour forgetfulness of past sins."[54][55][56] Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor for Channel 4 News, who reported extensively on the Balkan conflict, nominated The Hired Man as her choice for the Alternative Booker, saying: "Never mind the Booker: the year's most award-worthy book is The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna. Set in Croatia it explores themes of conflict, the lasting impact of war and 'how anger never quite fades'."[57]

Of The Hired Man's setting in Croatia, addressing the ethnic cleansing which followed the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, Forna said: "There’s a saying: ‘Write about what you know.’ There is an addition to that: ‘Write about what you want to understand.’ That’s the case with the new book."[49]

At the close of 2013, The Hired Man featured on several lists of the best books of the year, most notably in The Boston Globe and The Independent.[58][59]

Bibliography

Awards and honours

References

  1. ↑ Brittain, Victoria (18 May 2002). "The Truth About Daddy". The Guardian. London.
  2. ↑ "Aminatta Forna: 'My country had a war. It would be extraordinary not to want to write about that'", The Independent, 4 June 2011.
  3. ↑ Renee Montagne, "'Ancestor Stones:' Life and War in Sierra Leone", NPR Books, 2 July 2007.
  4. ↑ Kiley, Sam (20 March 2010). "The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna". The Times. London.
  5. ↑ The Independent Bath Literature Festival.
  6. ↑ The Hired Man, Aminattaforna.com
  7. ↑ Commonwealth Prize.
  8. 1 2 "Aminatta Forna wins Commonwealth Writers' honour", BBC News, 22 May 2011.
  9. ↑ Orange Prize for Fiction 2011 shortlist.
  10. ↑ Aminatta Forna page at Bloomsbury.
  11. ↑ "Reading Africa", Williams.
  12. ↑ "Writers from seven countries awarded $150,000 Yale prize", Yale News, 7 March 2014.
  13. ↑ "Aminatta Forna – Fiction 2014", Windham Campbell Prizes.
  14. ↑ Richard Lea, "Eight authors surprised by $150,000 Windham Campbell books prizes", theguardian.com, 7 March 2014.
  15. ↑ http://www.booktrust.org.uk/prizes/5/2015
  16. 1 2 http://neustadtprize.org/finalists-for-the-2016-neustadt-international-prize-for-literature/#.VW9PJUarGa8
  17. ↑ http://windhamcampbell.org/blog/2015/05/28/aminatta-forna-nominated-neustadt-international-prize
  18. ↑ http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/finalists-announced-24th-neustadt-international-prize-literature#.VW9PLEarGa8
  19. ↑ Barry, Maggie (8 May 2011). "Acclaimed author reveals secret Scottish roots in moving tribute". Daily Record (Scotland).
  20. ↑ Sekou Daouda Bangura, "34 years after the execution of Mohamed Sorie Fornah and 14 others", The Patriotic Vanguard, 21 July 2009.
  21. ↑ "Ex-officials on trial for treason in Africa", Washington Afro-American, 15 October 1974.
  22. ↑ "Small Talk: Aminatta Forna – Interview by Anna Metcalfe", Financial Times, 26 April 2010.
  23. ↑ "Weldon and Hensher head to Bath Spa". The Bookseller. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  24. ↑ Through African Eyes (videorecording), written and directed by Aminatta Forna; a BBC/RM Arts co-production; Smithsonian Institution Libraries.
  25. ↑ Africa Unmasked: The Black Man's Burden (2002), BFI.
  26. ↑ The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu, BBC Four.
  27. ↑ National Theatre website.
  28. ↑ Aminatta Fora profile, The Man Booker Prize.
  29. ↑ "The Man Booker International Prize 2013 – Judging Panel Announced", 2 December 2011.
  30. 1 2 Nigel Farndale, "Aminatta Forna interview: unsilent witness", The Telegraph, 24 March 2013.
  31. ↑ E. Ethelbert Miller (edited by John Feffer), "Interview with R. Victoria Arana", Foreign Policy in Focus, 10 April 2008.
  32. 1 2 Alfred Hickling, "The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna – review", The Guardian, 27 March 2013.
  33. 1 2 "Aminatta Forna", Literature, The British Council.
  34. ↑ Thompson, Bob (3 November 2007). "New Chapters in the Story of Africa's People Are Honored". The Washington Post.
  35. ↑ de:LiBeraturpreis
  36. ↑ Akbar, Arifa (2 April 2010). "Wartime loves and betrayals: Aminatta Forna's new novel casts a fresh light on old war wounds". The Independent. London.
  37. ↑ Commonwealth Foundation website.
  38. ↑ "Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2011 winners revealed", 21 May 2011.
  39. ↑ "Shortlist 2012 – International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award", 12 April 2012.
  40. ↑ http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/prize.html
  41. ↑ "Orange prize for fiction, Books, Fiction (Books genre), Culture, Emma Donoghue". The Guardian. London. 12 April 2011.
  42. ↑ Warwick Prize for Writing, 2011 shortlist.
  43. ↑ 10 Writers, 10x10.
  44. ↑ "Quality learning shouldn't be a pipe dream", 10x10, 19 June 2012.
  45. ↑ Vanessa Thorpe, "A-list stars support unique project to highlight need to educate girls", The Observer, 3 March 2013.
  46. ↑ 10x10 Presents "Girl Rising".
  47. ↑ "Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2013 Book Preview", The Millions.
  48. ↑ Adrian Turpin, "We chip away at the past", Financial Times, 19 April 2013.
  49. 1 2 Helen Dunmore, "The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna", The Times, 23 March 2013.
  50. ↑ Harry Ritchie, review of The Hired Man, MailOnline, 21 March 2013.
  51. ↑ Hannah McGill, Book review: The Hired Man – Aminatta Forna, Scotsman, 27 March 2013.
  52. ↑ Kirkus Review.
  53. ↑ Publishers Weekly review.
  54. ↑ Manasi Subramaniam, "Burying the ghosts of the past, brick by brick" (review), The Sunday Guardian, 31 August 2013.
  55. ↑ Nigel Featherstone, "Eking beauty from the decay", Sydney Morning Herald, 3 August 2013.
  56. ↑ Geordie Williamson, "Brutal past bleeds into the present", The Australian, 11 May 2013.
  57. ↑ "Alternative Booker: Lindsey Hilsum on The Hired Man – video", Channel 4 News.
  58. ↑ "2013 – the year in review: The best books of the year", The Independent.
  59. ↑ John Freeman, "Best fiction 2013", The Boston Globe, 28 December 2013.
  60. ↑ "BBC National Short Story Award in partnership with Booktrust 2010".
  61. ↑ "Prize Citation for Aminatta Forna". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. 7 March 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
  62. ↑ "Finalists for the 2016 Neustadt International Prize for Literature". http://neustadtprize.org/the-neustadt-prize-about/#.VW9VgkarGa8. Retrieved 3 June 2015. External link in |publisher= (help)

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