surrounding her father's death are the subject of the memoir The Devil
that Danced on the Water.
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.
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), Africa Unmasked (2002) and The Lost Libraries
of Timbuktu (2009). Forna is also a board member of the Royal
National Theatre and a judge for the The Man Booker International
Prize 2013.
Aminatta Forna is married to the furniture designer Simon Westcott
and lives in south-east London.
ELIF
SHAFAK was born in Strasbourg, France, in
1971. She is an award-winning novelist and
the most widely read woman writer in
Turkey. Critics have named her as “one of the most distinctive voices
in contemporary Turkish and world literature”. Her books have been
published in more than 40 countries and she was awarded the
honorary distinction of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.
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Le portrait magazine