Igiaba Scego (born 20 March 1974 in Rome)[1] is an Italian writer, journalist, and activist of Somali origin.
Igiaba Scego |
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Igiaba Scego speaking at Festivaletteratura. |
Biography
Scego's father was a prominent Somali politician.[2] She graduated in Foreign Literature at the First University of Rome (La Sapienza) and obtained a PhD in pedagogy at the Third University of Rome. Presently, she is writing about and researching cultural dialogue and migration.
Works
She writes for various magazines dealing with migrant literature and African literature,such as Latinoamerica, Carta, El Ghibli and Migra.
Her works include autobiographical references, and they depict the delicate balance between her two cultural realities, the Italian and Somali.
In 2003, she won the Eks & Tra prize for migrant writers with her story "Salsicce", and published her debut novel, La nomade che amava Alfred Hitchcock.
In 2006 she attended the Literature festival in Mantua.
Scego collaborates with newspapers such as La Repubblica and Il manifesto and contributes to the magazine Nigrizia with an opinion column, titled "The colors of Eve".
In 2007 along with Ingy Mubiayi, she edited the short story collection Quando nasci è una roulette. Giovani figli di migranti si raccontano. It follows the story of seven boys and girls of African origin, who were born in Rome of foreign parents or came to Italy when young. In 2011, she won the "Premio Mondello" with her book La mia casa è dove sono, which was published the previous year by Rizzoli.
In 2017, her book Adua was translated into English by Jamie Richards, and in 2019, Aaron Robertson translated her book Oltre Babilonia, again into English, with the title Beyon Babylon.
Bibliography
- La nomade che amava Alfred Hitchcock, Rome: Edizioni Sinnos, 2003.
- Rhoda, Rome: Edizioni Sinnos, 2004.
- Pecore nere. Racconti with Gabriela Kuruvilla, Ingy Mubiayi, Laila Wadia, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2005.
- Quando nasci è una roulette. Giovani figli di migranti si raccontano, Edizioni Terre di Mezzo, 2007.
- Amori Bicolori. Racconti, Roma, edizioni Laterza, 2007.
- Oltre Babilonia, Donzelli editore, 2008. English translation (by Aaron Robertson): Beyond Babylon, Two Lines Press, 2019.
- L'albero in Nessuna Pietà, Salani editore, 2009.
- La mia casa è dove sono, Rizzoli, 2010. Libro autobiografico che descrive una famiglia dispersa tra Somalia, Gran Bretagna e Italia.[3]
- Roma Negata, coautrice con Rino Bianchi. Ediesse, 2014.
- Adua, Giunti 2015. English translation (by Jamie Richards): Adua, New Vessel Press, 2017.
References
Further reading
- Simone Brioni. The Somali Within. Language, Race and Belonging in 'Minor' Italian Literature. Cambridge: Legenda 2015.
External links
Recipients of the Mondello Prize |
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Special Jury Prize: Denise McSmith (1975) • Stefano D'Arrigo (1977) • Jurij Trifonov (1978) • Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz (1979) • Pietro Consagra (1980) • Ignazio Buttitta, Angelo Maria e Ela Ripellino (1983) • Leonardo Sciascia (1985) • Wang Meng (1987) • Mikhail Gorbaciov (1988) • Peter Carey, José Donoso, Northrop Frye, Jorge Semprún, Wole Soyinka, Lu Tongliu (1990) • Fernanda Pivano (1992) • Associazione Scrittori Cinesi (1993) • Dong Baoucum, Fan Boaci, Wang Huanbao, Shi Peide, Chen Yuanbin (1995) • Xu Huainzhong, Xiao Xue, Yu Yougqnan, Qin Weinjung (1996) • Khushwant Singh (1997) • Javier Marías (1998) • Francesco Burdin (2001) • Luciano Erba (2002) • Isabella Quarantotti De Filippo (2003) • Marina Rullo (2006) • Andrea Ceccherini (2007) • Enrique Vila-Matas (2009) • Francesco Forgione (2010) |
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First poetic work: Giovanni Giuga (1978) • Gilberto Sacerdoti (1979) |
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First work: Valerio Magrelli (1980) • Ferruccio Benzoni, Stefano Simoncelli, Walter Valeri, Laura Mancinelli (1981) • Jolanda Insana (1982) • Daniele Del Giudice (1983) • Aldo Busi (1984) • Elisabetta Rasy, Dario Villa (1985) • Marco Lodoli, Angelo Mainardi (1986) • Marco Ceriani, Giovanni Giudice (1987) • Edoardo Albinati, Silvana La Spina (1988) • Andrea Canobbio, Romana Petri (1990) • Anna Cascella (1991) • Marco Caporali, Nelida Milani (1992) • Silvana Grasso, Giulio Mozzi (1993) • Ernesto Franco (1994) • Roberto Deidier (1995) • Giuseppe Quatriglio, Tiziano Scarpa (1996) • Fabrizio Rondolino (1997) • Alba Donati (1998) • Paolo Febbraro (1999) • Evelina Santangelo (2000) • Giuseppe Lupo (2001) • Giovanni Bergamini, Simona Corso (2003) • Adriano Lo Monaco (2004) • Piercarlo Rizzi (2005) • Francesco Fontana (2006) • Paolo Fallai (2007) • Luca Giachi (2008) • Carlo Carabba (2009) • Gabriele Pedullà (2010) |
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Italian Author: Alberto Moravia (1982) • Vittorio Sereni alla memoria (1983) • Italo Calvino (1984) • Mario Luzi (1985) • Paolo Volponi (1986) • Luigi Malerba (1987) • Oreste del Buono (1988) • Giovanni Macchia (1989) • Gianni Celati, Emilio Villa (1990) • Andrea Zanzotto (1991) • Ottiero Ottieri (1992) • Attilio Bertolucci (1993) • Luigi Meneghello (1994) • Fernando Bandini, Michele Perriera (1995) • Nico Orengo (1996) • Giuseppe Bonaviri, Giovanni Raboni (1997) • Carlo Ginzburg (1998) • Alessandro Parronchi (1999) • Elio Bartolini (2000) • Roberto Alajmo (2001) • Andrea Camilleri (2002) • Andrea Carraro, Antonio Franchini, Giorgio Pressburger (2003) • Maurizio Bettini, Giorgio Montefoschi, Nelo Risi (2004) • pr. Raffaele Nigro, sec. Maurizio Cucchi, ter. Giuseppe Conte (2005) • pr. Paolo Di Stefano, sec. Giulio Angioni (2006) • pr. Mario Fortunato, sec. Toni Maraini, ter. Andrea Di Consoli (2007) • pr. Andrea Bajani, sec. Antonio Scurati, ter. Flavio Soriga (2008) • pr. Mario Desiati, sec. Osvaldo Guerrieri, ter. Gregorio Scalise (2009) • pr. Lorenzo Pavolini, sec. Roberto Cazzola, ter. (2010) • pr. Eugenio Baroncelli, sec. Milo De Angelis, ter. Igiaba Scego (2011) • pr. Edoardo Albinati, sec. Paolo Di Paolo, ter. Davide Orecchio (2012) • pr. Andrea Canobbio, sec. Valerio Magrelli, ter. Walter Siti (2013) • pr. Irene Chias, sec. Giorgio Falco, ter. Francesco Pecoraro (2014) • pr. Nicola Lagioia, sec. Letizia Muratori, ter. Marco Missiroli (2015) • pr. Marcello Fois, sec. Emanuele Tonon, ter. Romana Petri (2016) • pr. Stefano Massini, sec. Alessandro Zaccuri, ter. Alessandra Sarchi (2017) |
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"Ignazio Buttitta" Award: Nino De Vita (2003) • Attilio Lolini (2005) • Roberto Rossi Precerotti (2006) • Silvia Bre (2007) |
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Special award of the President: Ibrahim al-Koni (2009) • Emmanuele Maria Emanuele (2010) • Antonio Calabrò (2011) |
Poetry prize: Antonio Riccardi (2010) |
Translation Award: Evgenij Solonovic (2010) |
Identity and dialectal literatures award: Gialuigi Beccaria e Marco Paolini (2010) |
Essays Prize: Marzio Barbagli (2010) |
Mondello for Multiculturality Award: Kim Thúy (2011) |
Mondello Youths Award: Claudia Durastanti (2011) • Edoardo Albinati (2012) • Alessandro Zaccuri (2017) |
"Targa Archimede", Premio all'Intelligenza d'Impresa: Enzo Sellerio (2011) |
Prize for Literary Criticism: Salvatore Silvano Nigro (2012) • Maurizio Bettini (2013) • Enrico Testa (2014) • Ermanno Cavazzoni (2015) • Serena Vitale (2016) • Antonio Prete (2017) |
Award for best motivation: Simona Gioè (2012) |
Special award for travel literature: Marina Valensise (2013) |
Special Award 40 Years of Mondello: Gipi (2014) |