Meet the author: Abdulrazak Gurnah, Nobel Prize Winner Literature 2021
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the full programme of this evening, with a dash of brussels, will be announced later.
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Meet the author
The meetings with writers at Passa Porta, prepared with passion, courage and thoroughness, are more than simply the presentation of literary works. We seek to achieve a genuine connection between writer and reader, and among readers themselves.
Go to overviewAfter Annie Ernaux in March 2023, La Monnaie and international house of literature Passa Porta are delighted to welcome another Nobel Prize Winner in Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah, on 8 April 2024. In novels such as Paradise, Afterlives and By the Sea, the versatile Tanzanian author managed to give a voice to all those who have been neglected by history, from colonial Africa to 1960s London.
The year 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of international house of literature Passa Porta. The return of Abdulrazak Gurnah, a guest of Passa Porta in its early years, will be one of the highlights of this anniversary year.
Abdulrazak Gurnah was born in 1948 in Zanzibar, Tanzania. In 1967 he fled to the UK, where he taught English and postcolonial literature at the University of Kent. His impressive and widely acclaimed oeuvre consists of essays, short stories and novels. Notable works include Paradise (1994), By the Sea (2001) and Desertion (2005). His latest novel, Afterlives (2020), is a work of historical fiction. In his work, he describes the events in his homeland and the difficulties he encountered when he arrived in English while dealing with themes such as uprootedness, migration and colonialism.
When awarding him the highest literary distinction, the Nobel Prize Committee called him ‘one of the world’s most prominent postcolonial writers. He has explored, in a penetrating manner and with great compassion, the consequences of colonialism in East Africa and its effects on the lives of uprooted and migrating people’.
about the guests
Alicja Gescinska (born 1981) is a Polish-Belgian philosopher and writer of novels, poetry, theatre texts and philosophical books. She was born in Warsaw during a difficult period for Poland. Her parents decided to leave Poland when Alicja was seven. They stayed briefly in an asylum centre in Brussels, a period that left a deep impression. She grew up in Lede. She is currently director of the philosophy course at The University of Buckingham in London.
Sulaiman Addonia (born 1972) is an Eritrean-Ethiopian-British novelist. He lived as a child in a refugee camp in Sudan and Saudi Arabia. He came to London as an unaccompanied minor where he studied and made his debut as an author. His first novel, The Consequences of Love, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. His work has been translated into more than 20 languages. Addonia now lives in the Brussels area, where he runs a creative writing school for refugees and asylum seekers. His new novel will be published this autumn.
Lisette Ma Neza is from the Netherlands, but has since been living in Brussels where she studies film. In 2017, she became the first Dutch-speaking woman to win the Belgian Poetry Slam Championship. In 2018, she became vice-world Slam Poetry champion in Rio de Janeiro. She has so far only published her work on stage, both solo and with her backing band. VRT, public-service broadcaster of the Flemish region, called her ‘our own Amanda Gorman’. In 2024, she became the first Public Poet Brussels.
Marie Darah is an actor, author, slammer and a socio-cultural workshop teacher.
They are a poet with a fluid style that respects the diversity of life. Darah’s writing transcends boundaries and defies gender norms. In 2021, they became Belgian and European Slam Champion. Their work 'Depuis que tu n’as pas tiré', a fusion of storytelling and slam was published by Maelström and was brought to life at the theater Rideau de BXL.
Their collection 'Sous le Noir du Tarmac/Beneath Black Tar', translated from French to English by Nefer Ferreira Monteiro Nunes, was published in 2022 by the same publisher.
In 2023, they were crowned international champion in Cyprus and received an African Artistic Award for literature. Their collection 'Meutes' is published by Midis Poésies.
They work in close collaboration with social and educational associations. Their aim is to rethink the world by deconstructing its systems of oppression.
La thématique de son œuvre est en connexion évidente avec la création de l’opéra Ali, qui conte l’histoire vraie d’un garçon qui, à douze ans, s’est aventuré sur la dangereuse route migratoire vers l’Europe.
Part of the proceeds of this evening will go to ICORN, a network of more than seventy cities around the world, including Brussels, that offer shelter to writers at risk.
Organized by La Monnaie, the international house of literature Passa Porta and KVS in collaboration with Meulenhoff.
Foto © Mark Pringle
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