Ayesha Harruna Attah

Ayesha Harruna Attah
Ayesha Harruna Attah 2112075.jpg
BornDecember 1983
Accra, Ghana
OccupationNovelist
NationalityGhanaian
GenreFiction

Ayesha Harruna Attah (born December 1983) is a Ghanaian-born fiction writer.[1][2] She lives in Senegal.[3]

Early years and education

Ayesha Harruna Attah was born in Accra, Ghana, in the 1980s, under a military government, to a mother who was a journalist and father who was a graphic designer.[4] Attah has said: "My parents were my first major influences. They ran a literary magazine called Imagine, which had stories about Accra; articles on art, science, film, books; cartoons—which I especially loved. They were (and still are) my heroes. I discovered Toni Morrison when I was thirteen, and I was hooked. I devoured everything she wrote. I remember reading Paradise, and while its meaning completely evaded me then, I was left feeling like it was the most amazing book written and that one day I wanted to write a world full of strong female characters, just like Ms. Morrison had done."[5]

After growing up in Accra she moved to Massachusetts and studied Biochemistry at Mount Holyoke College,[6] and then Columbia University,[7] and she received an MFA in Creative Writing at New York University.[8][3]

Writing

She has published three novels.[3] Her debut book Harmattan Rain (2009) was written as the result of a fellowship from Per Ankh Publishers — under the mentorship of Ghanaian novelist Ayi Kwei Armah — and TrustAfrica,[9] and was shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Africa Region).[10] Her second novel Saturday's Shadows, published by World Editions[11] in 2015,[12] was nominated for the Kwani? Manuscript Project,[13] and has been published in Dutch (De Geus).[14] Her third novel is The Hundred Wells of Salaga, dealing with "relationships, desires and struggles in women’s lives in Ghana in the late 19th century during the scramble for Africa".[15]

As a 2014 AIR Award laureate, Attah was a writer-in-residence at the Instituto Sacatar in Bahia, Brazil.[16] She also won the Miles Morland Foundation Scholarship in 2016 for a proposed non-fiction book on the history of the kola nut.[17]

Harmattan Rain

Harmattan Rain was written in 2009, following the story of three-generation Ghanaian family, including Lizzie-Achiaa, Akua Afriyie and Sugri.

Lizzie-Achiaa was the brave matriarch of their family, who ran off looking for her lover and at the same time pursuing a nursing career. Her rebellious daughter, artist Akua Afriye, strikes out on her own as a single parent in a country rocked by successive coups, and Akua Afriye's only daughter Sugri was a lovely, smart girl who grew up too sheltered then leaves home for university in New York, where she learns that sometimes one can have too much freedom.[18]

Saturday's Shadows

Set in 1990s West Africa, Saturday's Shadows is about "a family that is struggling to maintain its cohesion in the midst of a tenuous political setting", of which it has been said: "Attah proves once again her proficiency as a writer. She demonstrates her dexterity as a writer with the accuracy and lucidity of her character development."[19]

Works

Novels

  • Harmattan Rain Popenguine, Senegal, West Africa : Per Ankh, 2008. ISBN 9782911928123, OCLC 310739454
  • Saturday's Shadows London : World Editions, 2015. ISBN 9789462380431, OCLC 903399393
  • The Hundred Wells of Salaga New York : Other Press, 2019. ISBN 9781590519950, OCLC 1035458812

Essays

Other writing

  • "Second Home, Plus Yacht", Yachting Magazine, October 2007[22]
  • "Incident on the way to the Bakoy Market", Asymptote Magazine, 2013[23]

References

  1. ^ Lee, A. C. (14 November 2013). "Young African Writers Hold Forth in Brooklyn". New York Times.
  2. ^ Patrick, Diane (6 December 2013). "African-American Books Around the World". Publishers Weekly.
  3. ^ a b c "Ayesha Harruna Attah'". Pontas Agency.
  4. ^ Ayesha Harruna Attah, "Why I Write", Authors — World Editions, 30 September 2015.
  5. ^ Daniel Musiitwa, "Interview with Ghanaian Author Ayesha Harruna Attah", Africa Book Club, 1 May 2015.
  6. ^ "Mount Holyoke Event Archive: 2008-2015". Archived from the original on 2016-04-27. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  7. ^ "Alumni Bookshelf". Columbia Alumni Association. Archived from the original on 2016-08-07.
  8. ^ "Ayesha: Ghana's rising literary icon". CP Africa. 1 April 2010.
  9. ^ "Interview with Ghanaian Writer, Ayesha Harruna Attah", Geosi Reads, 11 March 2013.
  10. ^ "Shortlists for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize – Africa Region". Books Live.
  11. ^ James, Anna (13 October 2014). "Visser of De Geus launches English language publisher". The Bookseller.
  12. ^ Attah, Ayesha (2015). Saturday's Shadows. World Editions. ISBN 978-94-6238-043-1.
  13. ^ "Kwani? Manuscript Project Shortlist". Kwani?. 17 June 2013.
  14. ^ "English and Dutch Debut for New-York Based Ghanian Writer Ayesha H. Attah". Book Trade. 1 April 2014. Archived from the original on 14 August 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  15. ^ "One Hundred Wells" page at Pontas Agency.
  16. ^ Koinange, Wanjiru (11 September 2014). "Introducing the 2014 Artists in Residency Award Laureates". Africa Centre.
  17. ^ "Morland Writing Scholarships for 2016". Miles Morland Foundation.
  18. ^ Darkowaa Adu-Kofi (2 September 2014). "A review of Harmattan Rain, by Ayesha Harruna Attah". Ayiba Magazine. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
  19. ^ "Saturday’s Shadows by Ayesha Harruna Attah", Conscientization 101.
  20. ^ Attah, Ayesha (July 2015). "Skinni Mini". Ugly Duckling Diaries.
  21. ^ Attah, Ayesha (September 4, 2015). "The Intruder". The New York Times Magazine.
  22. ^ Attah, Ayesha (3 October 2007). "Second Home, Plus Yacht". Yachting Magazine.
  23. ^ Attah, Ayesha (2013). "Incident on the way to the Bakoy Market". Asymptote Magazine.

External links


This page was last updated at 2019-11-10 09:28 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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