Podcast appearances and mentions of Aminatta Forna

Chris Power is joined by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Aminatta Forna & Lucy Caldwell

Aminatta Forna, author of Ancestor Stones (2006), Happiness (2018), and most recently The Window Seat (2021) joins Georgetown prof. Nicole Rizzuto and host Aarthi Vadde for a wide-ranging conversation about reversing the gaze. Born in Sierra Leone, Aminatta is of Scottish and Malian ancestry and grew up around the world. Her mixed upbringing led her to develop a prismatic view of identity and, though she accepts the moniker of “African writer,” she rejects the double-standard of authenticity it implies. She also chafes against the Conradian image of Africa, which infused so many of her own literary encounters with her home continent. In response to these distortions, Aminatta describes developing a “forensic level of honesty” that allowed her to re-encounter Sierra Leone on her own terms. She also learned to look back at those who would look at her. Reversing the gaze extends not only from Africa to Europe but also to the human-animal divide. Aminatta and Nicole reconsider Western stereotypes around African animal cruelty, what it means to portray animal consciousness, and what the treatment of dogs in Sierra Leone and foxes in London tells us about what those societies value. Finally, Aminatta reads from Ancestor Stones and offers a chilling vision of the civil war in Sierra Leone through the dissociated perspective of a character inspired by the women who lived through it. Listeners will feel the “underground rising” in Aminatta's memorable phrase. Books Mentioned: -Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad -Kazuo Ishiguro -Dr. Gudush Jalloh – veterinarian in Sierra Leone and subject of Forna's essay “The Last Vet” -Pablo Picasso, Bull's Head -Forna, Happiness -Forna, The Hired Man -Temne – largest ethnic group in Sierra Leone; also the name of one of the official languages of Sierra Leone. Find out more about Novel Dialogue and its hosts and organizers here. Contact us, get that exact quote from a transcript, and explore many more conversations between novelists and critics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Aminatta Forna, author of Ancestor Stones (2006), Happiness (2018), and most recently The Window Seat (2021) joins Georgetown prof. Nicole Rizzuto and host Aarthi Vadde for a wide-ranging conversation about reversing the gaze. Born in Sierra Leone, Aminatta is of Scottish and Malian ancestry and grew up around the world. Her mixed upbringing led her to develop a prismatic view of identity and, though she accepts the moniker of “African writer,” she rejects the double-standard of authenticity it implies. She also chafes against the Conradian image of Africa, which infused so many of her own literary encounters with her home continent. In response to these distortions, Aminatta describes developing a “forensic level of honesty” that allowed her to re-encounter Sierra Leone on her own terms. She also learned to look back at those who would look at her. Reversing the gaze extends not only from Africa to Europe but also to the human-animal divide. Aminatta and Nicole reconsider Western stereotypes around African animal cruelty, what it means to portray animal consciousness, and what the treatment of dogs in Sierra Leone and foxes in London tells us about what those societies value. Finally, Aminatta reads from Ancestor Stones and offers a chilling vision of the civil war in Sierra Leone through the dissociated perspective of a character inspired by the women who lived through it. Listeners will feel the “underground rising” in Aminatta's memorable phrase. Books Mentioned: -Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad -Kazuo Ishiguro -Dr. Gudush Jalloh – veterinarian in Sierra Leone and subject of Forna's essay “The Last Vet” -Pablo Picasso, Bull's Head -Forna, Happiness -Forna, The Hired Man -Temne – largest ethnic group in Sierra Leone; also the name of one of the official languages of Sierra Leone. Find out more about Novel Dialogue and its hosts and organizers here. Contact us, get that exact quote from a transcript, and explore many more conversations between novelists and critics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Aminatta Forna, author of Ancestor Stones (2006), Happiness (2018), and most recently The Window Seat (2021) joins Georgetown prof. Nicole Rizzuto and host Aarthi Vadde for a wide-ranging conversation about reversing the gaze. Born in Sierra Leone, Aminatta is of Scottish and Malian ancestry and grew up around the world. Her mixed upbringing led her to develop a prismatic view of identity and, though she accepts the moniker of “African writer,” she rejects the double-standard of authenticity it implies. She also chafes against the Conradian image of Africa, which infused so many of her own literary encounters with her home continent. In response to these distortions, Aminatta describes developing a “forensic level of honesty” that allowed her to re-encounter Sierra Leone on her own terms. She also learned to look back at those who would look at her. Reversing the gaze extends not only from Africa to Europe but also to the human-animal divide. Aminatta and Nicole reconsider Western stereotypes around African animal cruelty, what it means to portray animal consciousness, and what the treatment of dogs in Sierra Leone and foxes in London tells us about what those societies value. Finally, Aminatta reads from Ancestor Stones and offers a chilling vision of the civil war in Sierra Leone through the dissociated perspective of a character inspired by the women who lived through it. Listeners will feel the “underground rising” in Aminatta's memorable phrase. Books Mentioned: -Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad -Kazuo Ishiguro -Dr. Gudush Jalloh – veterinarian in Sierra Leone and subject of Forna's essay “The Last Vet” -Pablo Picasso, Bull's Head -Forna, Happiness -Forna, The Hired Man -Temne – largest ethnic group in Sierra Leone; also the name of one of the official languages of Sierra Leone. Find out more about Novel Dialogue and its hosts and organizers here. Contact us, get that exact quote from a transcript, and explore many more conversations between novelists and critics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

On Tuesday, November 15, 2022, the Lannan Center hosted a reading and conversation with writer Laila Lalami and moderated by Aminatta Forna. Laila Lalami was born in Rabat and educated in Morocco, Great Britain, and the United States. She is the author of five books, most recently, Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America, which was shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. Her other books include, The Moor's Account, which won the American Book Award, the Arab-American Book Award, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. It was on the longlist for the Booker Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Her most recent novel, The Other Americans, was a national bestseller and a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and the National Book Award in Fiction. Her essays and criticism have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, The Nation, Harper's, the Guardian, and the New York Times. She has been awarded fellowships from the British Council, the Fulbright Program, and the Guggenheim Foundation and is currently a distinguished professor of creative writing at the University of California at Riverside. She lives in Los Angeles.Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

Aminatta Forna was a child when Sierra Leone fell into a brutal, ten-year civil war. Now, 20 years later, she's working to ensure that Sierra Leoneans shape the country's postwar narrative.   Forna joins Ray to chat about legacy, trauma, and forging identity – and joy – in the aftermath of violence, in her recent essay collection, The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion.   Guest:   Aminatta Forna, award-winning writer and author of The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion   Host:   Ray Suarez   If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

Deniz Gündoğan İbrişim'in "Antroposen Çağı'nda Tanıklık ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet: Temsiller, İmkânlar, Dönüşümler" iki başlıklı konuşma serisinin ikinci konuşması. Bu konuşma, İzlanda'da yeryüzünden tamamen yok alan bir buzul kütlesi için düzenlenen uluslararası bir cenaze töreni ve kadınlar tarafından yakılan ağıt ile açılıyor, dünya edebiyatından Antroposen ve iklim anlatıları temsilleri, dönüşen, dönüştüren edebiyat tartışmalarıyla devam ediyor.Seride konuşulacak yazarların arasında Yaşar Kemal, Bilge Karasu, Orhan Pamuk, Leylâ Erbil, Latife Tekin, Sema Kaygusuz, Deniz Gezgin, Amitav Ghosh, Kamila Shamsie, Uzma Aslam Khan ve Aminatta Forna bulunuyor.

We've been doing this for 4 years this week! Wow. Thanks for listening... We have a packed show this week! Nicole reminds everyone that we have a handy link on our website where you can see our NYT Best Seller lists in our catalog. NYT Middle Grade Best Seller Book List : http://mcpac.mcpl.lib.ny.us/search?/ftlist^bib38%2C1%2C0%2C13/mode=2 NYT Young Adult Best Seller Book List : http://mcpac.mcpl.lib.ny.us/search?/ftlist^bib35%2C1%2C0%2C20/mode=2 Sara discusses this year's Academy Award nominations : https://abc.com/shows/oscars/collection/nominees Finally, Sal has some picks for adult books for Black History Month. Here's the list: Black Fortunes by Shomari Wills - http://mcpac.mcpl.lib.ny.us/record=b1836863 Here's the episode of History Bites on CJ Walker : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfZiDjk1UMo The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson - http://mcpac.mcpl.lib.ny.us/record=b1543711 Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates - http://mcpac.mcpl.lib.ny.us/record=b1690873 Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly - http://mcpac.mcpl.lib.ny.us/record=b1756680 March Trilogy by John Lewis - http://mcpac.mcpl.lib.ny.us/record=b1618889, http://mcpac.mcpl.lib.ny.us/record=b1773211, http://mcpac.mcpl.lib.ny.us/record=b1773212 Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah - http://mcpac.mcpl.lib.ny.us/record=b1958409 The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna - http://mcpac.mcpl.lib.ny.us/record=b1552383 Do you have any Black History Month book recommendations? Comment below and let us know! Want to listen to our premiere episode? Find it here : https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-wybnf-ac253c        

Es ist 1975. Die 10-jährige Aminatta lebt mit ihrer Familie in Sierra Leone. Eines Tages wird ihr Vater, ehemaliger Arzt und Politiker, von zwei unbekannten Männern abgeholt und kehrt nie wieder nach Hause zurück. 25 Jahre später beginnt Aminatta, mittlerweile Juristin, Journalistin und Autorin, ihre Recherche: Sie will herausfinden, was mit ihrem Vater passiert ist und wer für sein Schicksal verantwortlich ist.

On November 30th, 2021, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring author Tope Folarin Introduction by Aminatta Forna.About Tope FolarinTope Folarin is a Nigerian-American writer based in Washington, D.C. He won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2013 and was shortlisted once again in 2016. He was also recently named to the Africa39 list of the most promising African writers under 40. Folarin was educated at Morehouse College and the University of Oxford, where he earned two Masters degrees as a Rhodes Scholar. He is the author of A Particular Kind of Black Man (Simon & Schuster, 2019), and is currently the Lannan Creative Writing Visiting Lecturer at Georgetown University and Director of the Institute for Policy Studies.From A Particular Kind of Black ManShe told me I could serve her in heaven.She accompanied me to school each day. School was about a mile away, and a few hundred feet into my trek, just as my family's apartment building drifted out of view behind me, she would appear at my side.I don't remember how she looked. Memory often summons a generic figure in her place: an elderly white woman with frizzled gray hair, slightly bent over, a smile featuring an assortment of gaps and silver linings. I do remember her touch, however—it felt cool and papery, disarmingly comfortable on the hottest days of fall. She would often pat my head as we walked together, and a penetrating silence would cancel the morning sounds around us. I felt comfortable, protected somehow, in her presence. She never walked all the way to school with me, but her parting words were always the same:“Remember, if you are a good boy here on earth, you can serve me in heaven.”I was five years old. Her words sounded magical to me. Vast and alluring. I didn't know her, I barely knew her name, but the offer she held out to me each morning seemed far too generous to dismiss lightly. In class I would think about what servitude in heaven would be like. I imagined myself carrying buckets of water for her on streets of gold, rubbing her feet as angels sang praises in the background. I imagined that I'd have my own heavenly shack. I'd have time to do my own personal heavenly things as well.How else would I get to heaven?One day I told my father about her offer. We were talking about heaven, a favorite subject of his, and I mentioned that I already had a place there. “I've already found someone to serve,” I said.“What do you mean?”Dad smiled warmly at me. I felt his love. I repeated myself:“Daddy, I'm going to heaven.”“And how are you going to get there?”I told him about the old lady, my heavenly shack, the streets of gold. My father stared at me a moment, grief and sadness surging briefly to the surface of his face. And then anger. He leaned forward, stared into my eyes.“Listen to me now. The only person you will serve in heaven is God. You will serve no one else.”Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

On November 9th, 2021, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring author Aminatta Forna and editor John Freeman. Introduction by David Gewanter.About Aminatta FornaAminatta Forna was born in Scotland, raised in Sierra Leone and Great Britain and spent periods of her childhood in Iran, Thailand and Zambia. She is the award-winning author of the novels Happiness, The Hired Man, The Memory of Love and Ancestor Stones, and a memoir The Devil that Danced on the Water, and most recently the essay collection, The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion. Forna is the recipient of a Windham Campbell Award from Yale University, has won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book Award 2011, a Hurston Wright Legacy Award the Liberaturpreis in Germany and the Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize, and was made OBE in the Queen's New Year's Honours 2017. She is currently Director and Lannan Foundation Chair of Poetics of the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice at Georgetown University. About John FreemanJohn Freeman is the editor of Freeman's, a literary annual of new writing, and executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf. His books include How to Read a Novelist and Dictionary of the Undoing, as well as Tales of Two Americas, an anthology about income inequality in America, and Tales of Two Planets, an anthology of new writing about inequality and the climate crisis globally. He is also the author of two poetry collections, Maps and The Park. His work is translated into more than twenty languages, and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The New York Times. The former editor of Granta, he teaches writing at New York University.Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

On October 26th, 2021, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring Douglas Stuart and Maureen Corrigan. Introduction by Aminatta Forna.About Douglas StuartDouglas Stuart is a Scottish-American author. His debut novel, Shuggie Bain, won the Booker Prize. It is published by Grove Atlantic in the US and Picador in the UK, and is to be translated into thirty-four languages. He wrote Shuggie Bain over a ten year period and is currently at work on his second novel, to be published in 2022. His short stories, Found Wanting, and The Englishman, were published in The New Yorker magazine. His essay, Poverty, Anxiety, and Gender in Scottish Working-Class Literature was published by Lit Hub. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he has an MA from the Royal College of Art in London and since 2000 he has lived and worked in New York City.About Maureen CorriganMaureen Corrigan is The Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism in the Department of English. She is an expert in the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald, the literature of New York City, American detective fiction, American Women's Autobiography, the work of American Public Intellectuals in the 20th Century, and 19th century British poetry and prose. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania with a concentration in the social criticism of Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin and William Morris. She received her B.A. in English from Fordham University. For the past 31 years, Corrigan has been the weekly book critic on the Peabody Award-winning NPR program, ''Fresh Air.'' Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

On September 21st, 2021, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring Sofi Oksanen. Moderated by Lannan Center Director, Aminatta Forna. Cosponsored by the Georgetown Medical Humanities Initiative, the Georgetown Humanities Initiative, the Global and Comparative Literature Program, the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics,  the Women's and Gender Studies Program, and the Women's Center at Georgetown University.About Sofi OksanenSofi Oksanen is a Finnish-Estonian novelist and playwright. She has received numerous prizes for her work, including the Swedish Academy Nordic Prize, the Prix Femina Étranger, the Budapest Grand Prize, the European Book Prize, and the Nordic Council Literature Prize. She lives in Helsinki. Translated from the Finnish by Owen Witesman.About Aminatta FornaAminatta Forna is the award-winning author of the novels Happiness, The Hired Man, The Memory of Love and Ancestor Stones, and a memoir The Devil that Danced on the Water, and most recently the essay collection, The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion. She is currently Director and Lannan Foundation Chair of Poetics of the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice at Georgetown University. Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

Aminatta Forna in conversation with Eula Biss, discussing her new book, “The Window Seat: Notes From a Life in Motion,” published by Grove Press. This event was originally broadcast via Zoom and hosted by Josiah Luis Alderete. Aminatta Forna is the author of the novels “Ancestor Stones,” “The Memory of Love,” and “The Hired Man,” as well as the memoir “The Devil That Danced on the Water.” Forna's books have been translated into sixteen languages. Her essays have appeared in Granta, The Guardian, The Observer, and Vogue. She is currently the Lannan Visiting Chair of Poetics at Georgetown University. Eula Biss is the author of four books, most recently “Having and Being Had.” Her book “On Immunity” was named one of the Ten Best Books of 2014 by the New York Times Book Review, and “Notes from No Man's Land” won the National Book Critics Circle award for criticism in 2009. Her essays and prose poems have recently appeared in the Guardian, the New York Review of Books, The Believer, Freeman's, Jubilat, the Baffler, Harper's, and the New York Times Magazine. She teaches nonfiction writing at Northwestern University. Sponsored by the City Lights Foundation.

Simon and Rachel speak with Aminatta Forna, a novelist and non-fiction writer. She is the author of a memoir, “The Devil that Danced on the Water”, about her father—a dissident who was executed in Sierra Leone—as well as several award-winning novels, including “Happiness”, “The Hired Man”, “The Memory of Love” and “Ancestor Stones”. She has recently published “The Window Seat”, a collection of essays. Her work has been translated into more than 20 languages and she is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. We spoke to Aminatta about her early work at the BBC, the similarities between creative non-fiction and fiction and her decision to take up a post at Georgetown University. You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways, and on Facebook at facebook.com/alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar.

Aminatta Forna was raised to be a fighter. As a triple minority, she knew from a young age that she would be great, but she would need to work very hard to get what she wanted. This led her to develop an inquisitive and astute mind that questions the things everyone takes for granted. As a writer, she has explored and shared her grief as well as the concept of identity and she talks about the importance of telling ourselves the right narrative. Aminatta has lived a life of change, being born in Scotland and raised between Sierra Leone and other countries. She went back to Sierra Leone before the war ended and was able to bring change into a community with assertive and empowering interventions. She talks about the impact words can have on people, why she thinks appropriation can cause great damage to the literary and arts world, and why the elevation of victimhood does nothing for actual progress.  ABOUT Aminatta Forna Aminatta Forna is a British-Sierra Leonean formidable writer, humanitarian, professor, and thinker who has won numerous awards, including the Windham Campbell Award from Yale University. She has published four novels and a memoir, which have been translated into twenty two different languages.  Highlights of the episode: 01:53: Aminatta Forna discusses the relevance and currency of her BBC documentary The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu.  04:57:How Aminatta forged her identity. 10:06: The common and constant rebranding of identities to fit in with the rest of the world. 14:00: The American narrative and how it illustrates the many perspectives that can exist regarding one event or fact.  17:20: The everlasting nature of grief and how while it gets better it never disappears. 21:10: Aminatta's experience as part of the diaspora. 25:50: How Sierra Leone has survived through the ages and how the forests have been a sacred place of protection. 30:32: Growing up as a triple minority and being brought up to be ready to fight for what she wanted.  36:28: The drive that comes from having something different to say and the will to share it not with a minority but with the majority of people.  42:13: American academia and what Aminatta's experience as part of this world has been. 44:26: Writing and reading as a one-on-one experience that deeply touches people when they look for a certain kind of answer. 51:02: Elevating victimhood has become a common narrative that leads to the creation of tokens. Mentioned Resources Third Culture Africans Malée The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu Aminatta Forna The Window Seat

Our guests for this food-related episode are the author and chef Nigella Lawson, whose most recent book is Cook, Eat, Repeat and the award-winning novelist Aminatta Forna, author of Happiness and, most recently, a collection of essays called Window Seat. If you would like the read the extracts discussed in this episode go to linebyline.substack.com.Comments and feedback to @tds153 on Twitter. Line by Line is produced by Ben Tulloh with readings by Deli Segal. Music by Dee Yan-Key.

Writer Aminatta Forna's ongoing love of exploration has been captured in her new book, The Window Seat: Notes From A Life In Motion, a collection of thought-provoking essays that traverse a range of subjects including displacement, identity, memory, and how we encroach on the non-human world.

Writer Aminatta Forna's ongoing love of exploration has been captured in her new book, The Window Seat: Notes From A Life In Motion, a collection of thought-provoking essays that traverse a range of subjects including displacement, identity, memory, and how we encroach on the non-human world.

In this new episode of the ScotsInUs Podcast from the American-Scottish Foundation we are shining a spotlight on Scottish literature and upcoming book festivals in Scotland. We are joined in conversation with Vikki Reilly from Publishing Scotland who shares with us news of the upcoming Scottish Books Long Weekend which takes place online June 10 - 13. We are joined by Caroline Knox and James Knox, Directors of the Boswell Book Festival, taking place this year as a fully online event from June 10 - 16 featuring a program of readings, discussions and workshops from guests including Bill Paterson, Andrew Marr, @Janey Godley, Rory Stewart and Chris Bryant MP. We're joined in converstion with award winning author Aminatta Forna who shares with us her influences, inspiration and insight into her new book The Window Seat. With music preview from the upcoming Armadale Castle, Gardens & Museum of the Isles, Skye Castle Piping and Harp Competition with music from Freya Thomsen and Pippa Reid-Foster. Music from La Club Royale and Amy Papiransky. Presented by Jamie McGeechan for the American-Scottish Foundation. The ScotsInUs Podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Anchor and Spotify, just search for 'ScotsInUs'.

Amanda and Jenn discuss genre novels about older characters, read-alikes for Ted Lasso, and wanderlust in this week’s episode of Get Booked. Follow the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. This post contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, Book Riot may earn a commission. Feedback Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O’Neil (rec’d by Jeff) Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan (rec’d by Linda) Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady’s Guide to Sex, Marriage and Manners by Therese O’Neill and The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way by Bill Bryson (rec’d by Angie) Questions 1. Years ago I read the translation of the swedish book The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist. It’s one of those underrated books that deserves more love. It’s a scifi novel featuring an older woman who moves into a senior home that is more than what it seems. Residents get the life of luxury and all their needs and dreams met, but they are required to go through weekly blood and drug tests and many participate in questionable experiments. It’s a book about trust, good and evil, the elderly, and how far things might go in the future.  I would love to find more books featuring elderly folk, especially genre books (scifi, horror, thriller, suspense). I’ve read Fredrich Bachman, The Lido, The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper – in other words (spoilers) charming, quaint books with happy, hopeful endings.  Can you recommend any books with a twist or uncertainty or a hint of something unexpected?  Thanks! -Katherine 2. Hello Amanda and Jenn, big fan! Thank you for keeping me entertained through lockdown. My brother and I both love reading and keep trying to recommend books for each other but we have very different tastes. Books we have read this year that we thought might fit the bill for us both are: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (he loved and I struggled through). We both enjoyed The Examined Life: How we lose and find ourselves by Stephen Grosz and Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl  He prefers books that challenge him, that are eye opening/life changing and he’ll enjoy it if it’s really long. He likes non-fiction memoirs about war and classics that have stood the test of time. I adore what he likes to call ‘pop’ fiction; Crime, Thriller, Horror, anything recently published, fast paced and relatively short. Can you suggest something that might work for us both? Thank you!  -Jenny 3. TIME _SENSITIVE: Hello, I am going to Northern Maine with my husband for a makeshift honeymoon since ours was canceled from covid in June and I am looking for recommendations for books to read on the ride up from Philadelphia.  I am open to anything except horror, sci-fi and mystery but something with National Park/nature feels would be nice. I would also request a Red Socks book for me (I know next to nothing on baseball but since we will be going to a game on the way to Maine and I would like to know something about the stadium or the team before going). Thank you so much and I can’t wait to hear what you can suggest.  -Carissa 4. I am looking for a book (nonfiction or fiction does not matter) that talks about relationships between semi-distant dads and daughters.  My dad left my mom for another woman (now my step mom) when I was 6, so honestly I was too young for it to be terribly traumatic. Now that I am grown up (I’m 27) we barely speak. My step brother came out as trans a few years ago and both my dad and step mom have responded terribly to it, which was the thing that made me really give up on having a relationship with my dad.  I am queer and my fiance is nonbinary, and when I have introduced my previous partners to him he just dismissed their pronouns and “didn’t get it.” He does not even know I’m engaged and I have not spoken to him in 2 years now. He recently reached out to me and wants to reconnect, but honestly I am at a point where I only want to put emotional energy into relationships that are fulfilling.  So, I am looking for something with an estranged relationship between father and daughter, has queer themes/queer mc, and there does not have to be a redemption arc or anything. In fact, I would like something where the daughter gets closure with deciding to not maintain a relationship with her father. Maybe 1 nonfiction and 1 fiction? Thank you! -Kenna (she/her) 5. I realized recently that I kind of have Harry Potter as my ultimate favorite thing in my head as a default because like for others it was the first series I read that really drew me in and made me love the characters, etc, and I haven’t felt like I’ve ever found that with another series.  I don’t exactly want a Harry Potter readalike because I know there are lots of those.  I really want a book, preferably a series, preferably not fantasy, that has those same elements that make HP so lovable. A small cast of really well-developed characters, a really immersive and well-thought-out story, universal themes, found family, all that. I just want an adult version of it that will draw me in that way.  Hopefully this isn’t some impossible ask.  Thanks and love the show!  -Maria 6. I’m looking for books with the same feel as Ted Lasso. I don’t necessarily care if it is an American abroad story. I’m more interested in optimism, vulnerability, and humor. I don’t think I’m looking for “cozy” or “feel good” reads.  If I had to describe it, I would say I want the heart and vulnerability of Ted Lasso.  Thanks! -Casey  7. A year into the pandemic and I am having a deep craving for books that help with my wanderlust. I’m looking for narrative non-fiction or travelogues to help transport me, but also integrate deeper understanding of a place’s history and culture. Here’s some that I recently read that I’m still having a book hangover from: 1. Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey 2. Eat the Buddha:Life and Death in a Tibetan Town 3. Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef’s Journey to Discover Americas New Melting-Pot Cuisine 4. Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life Here’s my good reads, thanks in advance!!!! -Mia   Books Discussed Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante Piranesi by Susanna Clarke Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (cw: racial violence) Feeding the Monster by Seth Mnookin The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson Follow Your Arrow by Jessica Verdi (rec’d by Danika) Man Alive by Thomas Page McBee A Prince on Paper by Alyssa Cole Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers #1) Dead in the Garden by Dalia Donovan Check, Please!: #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu (with thanks to Smexy Books)  Window Seat by Aminatta Forna (comes out May 18) The Outrun by Amy Liptrot (tw: mental illness, suicidal ideation, sexual assault) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode explores the effects of war and how Africans react to topics surrounding mental health issues using the book Memory of love by AMINATTA FORNA set in 2002 Sierra Leone just after the Civil war. It explores various aspects of love as well. Check out https://t.co/2Q7tAyT0BN?amp=1 for article by Sahelien.com Also check out She writes woman and Mentally aware Nigeria on twitter and IG

On episode 149 of The Quarantine Tapes, guest host Walter Mosley is joined by Morgan Entrekin. Morgan is the publisher of Grove Atlantic. He tells Walter about his experience being in New York and weathering COVID early in the pandemic.Walter and Morgan discuss how the publishing industry has been affected by the pandemic. They talk virtual events, the changing role of books, and technology’s role in publishing. Morgan expresses both his hopes and fears for publishing, ending the episode with a note of optimism for the future. Morgan Entrekin grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. After graduating from Stanford and the Radcliffe Publishing Course, he joined Delacorte Press in 1977, where he worked with such authors as Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan. In 1984 he started his own imprint at Atlantic Monthly Press, publishing books by P.J. O’Rourke, Ron Chernow, and Francisco Goldman, among others. In 1993, Morgan merged Atlantic Monthly Press with Grove Press, the publisher of authors including Samuel Beckett, William Burroughs, Harold Pinter, and Tom Stoppard. Morgan is currently the CEO and Publisher of Grove Atlantic, Inc, which publishes 120 books a year ranging from general nonfiction, current affairs, history, biography, and narrative journalism to fiction, drama, and poetry. Authors include Mark Bowden, Aminatta Forna, Jim Harrison, Donna Leon, Yan Lianke, Helen Macdonald, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Kenzaburo Oe, Sarah Broom, Bernadine Evaristo, and Douglas Stuart. In 2015, Morgan launched the Literary Hub, a website that features original content from over 200 partners including publishers large and small, literary journals, not-for-profits, and booksellers. Lit Hub now has over 3 million visitors a month.Walter Mosley is one of the most versatile and admired writers in America. He is the author of more than 60 critically-acclaimed books including the just released Elements of Fiction, a nonfiction book about the art of writing fiction; the novel John Woman,Down the River and Unto the Sea (which won an Edgar Award for “Best Novel”) and the bestselling mystery series featuring “Easy Rawlins.” His work has been translated into 25 languages and includes literary fiction, science fiction, political monographs, and a young adult novel. His short fiction has been widely published, and his nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times and The Nation, among other publications. He is also a writer and an executive producer on the John Singleton FX show, “Snowfall.”In 2013 he was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame, and he is the winner of numerous awards, including an O. Henry Award, The Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, a Grammy®, and PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award.Mosley lives in New York City and Los Angeles.

On November 17, 2020, the Lannan Center presented a Crowdcast webinar featuring Carmen Giménez Smith and José Olivarez. Introduced by Aminatta Forna and moderated by English Department Chair Ricardo Ortíz and Professor Elizabeth Velez. Carmen Giménez Smith is most recently the author of Be Recorder (2020), which was shortlisted for both the National Book Award and the PEN Open Book Award. Her 2013 collection Milk and Filth, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is a Professor of English at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, VA.José Olivarez's debut book of poems, Citizen Illegal, was a finalist for the PEN/ Jean Stein Award and a winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize. It was named a top book of 2018 by The Adroit Journal, NPR, and the New York Public Library. In 2019, he was awarded a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation.Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

On October 20, 2020, the Lannan Center presented a Crowdcast webinar featuring Valeria Luiselli in conversation with Aminatta Forna. Introduced by Lakshmi Krishnan. Valeria Luiselli's recent novel, Lost Children Archive was a finalist for the 2019 Kirkus Prize for Fiction and long-listed for the 2019 Booker Prize, and has been named a best book of 2019 by Entertainment Weekly, Vanity Fair, Vulture, and Time. Lost Children Archive sits beside Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions, Luiselli’s ground-breaking book-length essay that has become a touchstone text for those looking to facilitate meaningful and informed conversations around the immigration crisis. Luiselli is also the author of the novels The Story of My Teeth and Faces in the Crowd, and Sidewalks, an essay collection. She is the recipient of a 2019 Macarthur “Genius Grant” and her works have been recognized by the National Book Critics Circle, The National Book Foundation, The New York Times, NPR, The Guardian, Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among others. She is a writer in residence at Bard College in New York. Aminatta Forna is a novelist, memoirist, and essayist. She was born in Scotland and raised between Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom. She is the award-winning author of the novels Happiness (2018), The Hired Man (2013), The Memory of Love (2011), and Ancestor Stones (2006). She is also the author of the memoir The Devil that Danced on the Water (2002). Her honors include a Windham Campbell Award from Yale University, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best Book Award 2011, and a Hurston Wright Legacy Award, among others. Forna is the current Director and Lannan Foundation Chair of Poetics at the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice. Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

TORCH Goes Digital! presents a series of weekly live events Big Tent - Live Events! Part of the Humanities Cultural Programme, one of the founding stones for the future Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities. In conversation with Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King. This event is also part of the North-east Africa Forum at the African Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. Hosted by Elleke Boehmer, Professor of World Literature in English (English Faculty, University of Oxford). Professor Boehmer is currently the Director for the Oxford Centre for Life Writing (OCLW) based at Wolfson College, and former Director of TORCH (2015-17), and also leads on the 'Writers Make Worlds' project - https://writersmakeworlds.com/ Biographies: Maaza Mengiste is the author of the novels, Beneath the Lion's Gaze, selected by the Guardian as one of the 10 best contemporary African books; and The Shadow King, a finalist for the LA Times Books Prize, a New York Times' Notable Book of 2019 and one of TIME's Must-Read Books of 2019. She is the recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the Premio il ponte, and fellowships from the Fulbright Scholar Program, the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital, and LiteraturHaus Zurich. Her work can be found in The New Yorker, New York Review of Books, Granta, the Guardian, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and BBC, amongst other publications. In conversation with: Birhanu T. Gessese Birhanu was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and is now studying Humanities at Kenyon College, USA. He is currently on a year abroad studying English Literature at Exeter University, UK. He likes to compose stories, work with the camera, and illustrate in ink pen. Along with Korranda Harris, he recently interviewed Maaza Mengiste for Africa in Words. Professor Richard Reid (History Faculty, University of Oxford) is a historian of modern Africa, focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. With a particular interest in the culture and practice of warfare in the modern period, part of Professor Reid's research interests includes the more recent armed insurgences, especially those between 1950s and the 1980s. https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/people/professor-richard-reid Professor Tsehai Berhane-Selassie Tsehai Berhane-Selassie taught social-anthropology, gender, and development studies in Universities in Ethiopia, the USA, the UK, and Ireland. She has published on Ethiopian Warriorhood, and gender issues in Ethiopia. 'The Shadow King' Synopsis: Published by Canon Gate. 'DEVASTATING' Marlon James, 'A MODERN CLASSIC' Andrew Sean Greer, 'INCREDIBLE' Lemn Sissay, 'BRILLIANT' Salman Rushdie, 'MAGNIFICIENT' Aminatta Forna, 'EPIC' Mary Morris, 'WONDERFUL' Laila Lalami, 'UNFORGETTABLE' The Times, 'REMARKABLE' New York Times ETHIOPIA. 1935. With the threat of Mussolini's army looming, recently orphaned Hirut struggles to adapt to her new life as a maid. Her new employer, Kidane, an officer in Emperor Haile Selassie's army, rushes to mobilise his strongest men before the Italians invade. Hirut and the other women long to do more than care for the wounded and bury the dead. When Emperor Haile Selassie goes into exile and Ethiopia quickly loses hope, it is Hirut who offers a plan to maintain morale. She helps disguise a gentle peasant as the emperor and soon becomes his guard, inspiring other women to take up arms. But how could she have predicted her own personal war, still to come, as a prisoner of one of Italy's most vicious officers? The Shadow King is a gorgeously crafted and unputdownable exploration of female power, and what it means to be a woman at war.

TORCH Goes Digital! presents a series of weekly live events Big Tent - Live Events! Part of the Humanities Cultural Programme, one of the founding stones for the future Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities. In conversation with Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King. This event is also part of the North-east Africa Forum at the African Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. Hosted by Elleke Boehmer, Professor of World Literature in English (English Faculty, University of Oxford). Professor Boehmer is currently the Director for the Oxford Centre for Life Writing (OCLW) based at Wolfson College, and former Director of TORCH (2015-17), and also leads on the 'Writers Make Worlds' project - https://writersmakeworlds.com/ Biographies: Maaza Mengiste is the author of the novels, Beneath the Lion's Gaze, selected by the Guardian as one of the 10 best contemporary African books; and The Shadow King, a finalist for the LA Times Books Prize, a New York Times' Notable Book of 2019 and one of TIME's Must-Read Books of 2019. She is the recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the Premio il ponte, and fellowships from the Fulbright Scholar Program, the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital, and LiteraturHaus Zurich. Her work can be found in The New Yorker, New York Review of Books, Granta, the Guardian, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and BBC, amongst other publications. In conversation with: Birhanu T. Gessese Birhanu was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and is now studying Humanities at Kenyon College, USA. He is currently on a year abroad studying English Literature at Exeter University, UK. He likes to compose stories, work with the camera, and illustrate in ink pen. Along with Korranda Harris, he recently interviewed Maaza Mengiste for Africa in Words. Professor Richard Reid (History Faculty, University of Oxford) is a historian of modern Africa, focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. With a particular interest in the culture and practice of warfare in the modern period, part of Professor Reid's research interests includes the more recent armed insurgences, especially those between 1950s and the 1980s. https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/people/professor-richard-reid Professor Tsehai Berhane-Selassie Tsehai Berhane-Selassie taught social-anthropology, gender, and development studies in Universities in Ethiopia, the USA, the UK, and Ireland. She has published on Ethiopian Warriorhood, and gender issues in Ethiopia. 'The Shadow King' Synopsis: Published by Canon Gate. 'DEVASTATING' Marlon James, 'A MODERN CLASSIC' Andrew Sean Greer, 'INCREDIBLE' Lemn Sissay, 'BRILLIANT' Salman Rushdie, 'MAGNIFICIENT' Aminatta Forna, 'EPIC' Mary Morris, 'WONDERFUL' Laila Lalami, 'UNFORGETTABLE' The Times, 'REMARKABLE' New York Times ETHIOPIA. 1935. With the threat of Mussolini's army looming, recently orphaned Hirut struggles to adapt to her new life as a maid. Her new employer, Kidane, an officer in Emperor Haile Selassie's army, rushes to mobilise his strongest men before the Italians invade. Hirut and the other women long to do more than care for the wounded and bury the dead. When Emperor Haile Selassie goes into exile and Ethiopia quickly loses hope, it is Hirut who offers a plan to maintain morale. She helps disguise a gentle peasant as the emperor and soon becomes his guard, inspiring other women to take up arms. But how could she have predicted her own personal war, still to come, as a prisoner of one of Italy's most vicious officers? The Shadow King is a gorgeously crafted and unputdownable exploration of female power, and what it means to be a woman at war.

On September 29, 2020 the Lannan Center presented a Crowdcast webinar featuring Susan Choi in Conversation with Maureen Corrigan. Introduction by Aminatta Forna.Susan Choi is most recently the author of Trust Exercise (2019), which won the National Book Award for fiction, and her first book for children, Camp Tiger (2019). Her first novel, The Foreign Student, won the Asian-American Literary Award for fiction. Her second novel, American Woman, was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize. Her third novel, A Person of Interest, was a finalist for the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award. In 2010 she was named the inaugural recipient of the PEN/W.G. Sebald Award. Her fourth novel, My Education, received a 2014 Lammy Award. A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, she teaches fiction writing at Yale and lives in Brooklyn.Maureen Corrigan is The Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism in the Department of English at Georgetown University. For the past 31 years, Corrigan has been the weekly book critic on the Peabody Award-winning NPR program, ''Fresh Air.'' She is also a Mystery Columnist for The Washington Post and publishes regularly on NPR on-line and The Wall Street Journal. Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

¡Hola a todos! Me temo que el viaje llega a su fin. Hemos vivido muchas cosas este verano, pero ya es hora de hacer las maletas y coger un avión de regreso a casa. Nos llevamos, eso sí, grandes experiencias. Hemos visitado 43 países, en los cinco continentes, aunque hemos hablado de muchos más libros. De hecho, diría que hemos pasado ampliamente los 80 que prometí :pOs dejo un pequeño resumen de todas las paradas de nuestro viaje y, también, de países con los que ampliar la ruta si es que aún os habéis quedado con ganas de seguir viajando.EUROPAEspaña: El infinito en un junco, de Irene Vallejo.Portugal: Ensayo sobre la ceguera, de José Saramago.Suecia: Los hombres que no amaban a las mujeres (trilogía), de Stieg Larsson.Austria: Erebos, de Ursula Poznanski.Reino Unido: Matilda |Las brujas | Charlie y la Fábrica de chocolate | Relatos de lo inesperado, de Roald Dahl.Italia: Anna, de Niccolò Ammaniti.Alemania: Tú no eres como las otras madres, de Angelika Schrobsdorff.Islandia: Inocencia robada, de Arnaldur Indridason (serie de 14 novelas).Turquía: La bastarda de Estambul, de Elif Shafak.Albania: El Palacio de los Sueños, de Ismaíl Kadaré.En la lista de pendientes:Croacia: Café Europa, de Slavenka Drakulik.Rumanía: El verano que mi madre tuvo los ojos verdes, de Tatiana Țîbuleac.Bielorrusia: La guerra no tiene nombre de mujer, de Svetlana Aleksiévich.Bélgica: La vida verdadera, de Adeline Dieudonné.Francia: Vestido de novia, de Pierre Lemaitre.ÁFRICARepública de Ghana: Volver a casa, de Yaa Gyasi.Egipto: Mujer en punto cero, de Nawal El Saadawi.Nigeria: Quédate conmigo, de Ayòbámi Adébáyò.Todo se desmorona, de Chinua Achebe.Americanah, de Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.Islas Mauricio: El último hermano, de Nathacha Appanah.Sudáfrica: Desgracia, de John Maxwell Coetzee.Botsuana: La primera agencia de mujeres detectives, de Alexander McCall Smith (serie de 19 libros).Marruecos: Canción dulce, de Leïla Slimani.Mozambique: Cada hombre es una raza, de Mia Couto.Zimbabue: Necesitamos nombres nuevos, de NoViolet Bulawayo.En la lista de pendientes:Somalia: Eslabones, de Nuruddin Farah.Senegal: La huelga de los mendigos, de Aminata Sow Fall.Congo: Tranvía 83 de Fiston Mwanza MujilaAngola: Buenos días, camaradas, de OndjakiLibia: Solo en el mundo, de Hisham Matar.Chad: Las raíces del cielo, de Romain Gary.Sierra Leona: El jardín de las mujeres, de Aminatta Forna.Kenia: El diablo en la cruz, de Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o.Etiopía: El lugar del aire, de Dinaw Mengestu.AMÉRICAColombia: El ruido de las cosas al caer, de Juan Gabriel Vásquez.Cien años de soledad, de Gabriel García Márquez.México: Casas Vacías, de Brenda Navarro.Argentina: Subsuelo, de Marcelo Luján.Nuestra parte de la noche, de Mariana Enríquez.Kentukis, de Samantha Schweblin.Brasil: Mi planta de naranja lima, de José Mauro de Vasconcelos.Ecuador: Mandíbula, de Mónica Ojeda.Chile: Los Altísimos, de Hugo Correa.Jamaica: Leopardo negro, lobo rojo de Marlon James.Perú: ¿Qué tengo de malo?, de María José Caro.Bolivia: Nuestro mundo muerto, de Liliana Colanzi.Cuba: Silencios, de Karla Suárez.En la lista de pendientes:Nicaragua: El país bajo mi piel, de Gioconda Belli.El Salvador: Roza, tumba, quema de Claudia Hernández.República Dominicana: Papi, de Rita Indiana.OCEANÍAAustralia: La bofetada, de Christos Tsiolkas.En la lista de pendientes:Las Luminarias, de Eleanor Catton.ASIAIrán: Leer Lolita en Teherán, de Azar Nafisi.Persépolis, de Marjane Satrapi.Georgia: La octava vida, de Nino Haratischwili.Corea del Sur: Kim Ji-Young nacida en 1982, de Cho Nam-joo.Japón: Battle Royale, de Koushun Takami.Nunca me abandones, de Kazuo Ishiguro.La fórmula preferida del profesor, de Yoko Ogawa.Afganistán: Mil soles espléndidos | Cometas en el cielo, de Khaled Hosseini.Rusia: Metro 2033 (trilogía), de Dmitry Glukhovsky.El Vivo | Una edad difícil, de Anna Starobinets.La India: El dios de las pequeñas cosas, de Arundhati Roy.China: El problema de los tres cuerpos (trilogía), de Liu Cixin.Irak: Frankenstein en Bagdad, de Ahmed Saadawi.Nepal: De diosa a mortal, de Rashmila Shakya.Indonesia: La belleza es una herida, de Eka Kurniawan.Corea del Norte: Los acuarios de Pyongyang, de Kang Chol-hwan.Israel: Los siete años de abundancia, de Etgar Keret.En la lista de pendientes:Arabia Saudí: Ciudades de sal, de Abderrahmán Munif.Camboya: Se lo llevaron todo, de Loung Ung.Mongolia: Cielo azul, de Galsan Tschinag.Pakistán: El fundamentalista reticente, de Mohsin Hamid.Malasia: El jardín de las brumas, de Tan Twan Eng.Para cualquier duda o comentario, las formas de contactar conmigo son a través de Twitter (@greenpeeptoes) o en el canal de Telegram del programa (t.me/habitacion101) También espero tus comentarios en https://emilcar.fm/habitacion101 donde podrás encontrar los enlaces de este episodio.

Talking about two ghost books and artefacts from Page One’s first two outside recordings, Charles Adrian continues his trip down memory (lapse) lane.   Books discussed in this episode are featured in Page One 30 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season-1#/30-ted-schmitz/), Page One 31 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season-1#/31-carly-mclaughlin/) and Page One 32 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season-1#/32-miriam-ross/).   Another book by Aminatta Forna, Ancestor Stones, is discussed in Page One 138 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season5#/138-jenny-adamthwaite/).   Episode image is a detail of a photograph taken by Charles Adrian.   Episode recorded: 22nd April, 2020.   More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/   Book listing: Memoir From Antproof Case by Mark Helprin (Page One 30) Solar Storms by Linda Hogan (Page One 31) A Time Of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Furmor (Page One 32) The Memory Of Love by Aminatta Forna (Page One 32)

“The voices you hear belong to wildlife biologist Stephen DeStefano and author Aminatta Forna, who was presenting a documentary we were making about Jack London (during which I broke my […]

Georgina Godwin meets Damian Barr, accoladed writer and columnist who revived the Savoy Hotel’s writer-in-residence programme. Together they interview Aminatta Forna, the award-winning Scottish and Sierra Leonean author and one of the Savoy’s two writers-in-residence for 2020.

On December 5, 2019, the Lannan Center presented a special event featuring author Juan Gabriel Vásquez. This event was introduced by Aminatta Forna and moderated by Marie Arana.Juan Gabriel Vásquez is the author of numerous novels, including The Shape of the Ruins (2018), which was shortlisted for the 2019 International Man Booker Prize; Reputations (2013), a New York Times Best Book of the Year; and The Sound of Things Falling (2011), a National Bestseller and winner of the 2014 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Vásquez’s novels have been published in twenty-five languages worldwide. After sixteen years in France, Belgium, and Spain, he now lives in Bogotá.Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

On September 24, 2019, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring poets Ilya Kaminsky and John James. Introduced by Aminatta Forna. Ilya Kaminsky is the author of Deaf Republic (Graywolf, 2019) and Dancing In Odessa (Tupelo, 2004). He has also co-edited and co-translated many other books, including Ecco Anthology of International Poetry (Harper Collins) and Dark Elderberry Branch: Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva (Alice James Books). His awards include the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Whiting Writer’s Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Metcalf Award, Lannan Foundation’s Fellowship and the NEA Fellowship. Currently, he holds the Bourne Chair in Poetry at Georgia Institute of Technology and lives in Atlanta.John James is the author of The Milk Hours, selected by Henri Cole for the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize and published in 2019 by Milkweed Editions. His poems appear in Boston Review, Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, Poetry Northwest, Best American Poetry 2017, and elsewhere, and his work has been supported by fellowships and awards from the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference, the Academy of American Poets, and Georgetown’s Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he is pursuing a Ph.D. in English at the University of California, Berkeley.Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

Aminatta Forna discusses her novel The Memory of Love with James Naughtie and a group of readers. The Memory of Love has as its background three decades of unrest and violence in Sierra Leone, Aminatta Forna's father's home country and the one where she mostly grew up. The story deals with two sets of relationships, centering around the University teacher Elias Cole fifty years ago, at the time of unrest, and in the early years of this century after the civil war. In 1969 Elias falls in love at first sight with a colleague’s wife, which will affect many around him – her husband, other colleagues, and eventually his psychiatrist Adrian Lockheart who is treating him in the present day. Adrian is the figure who links them all and his investigations into the relationships among all those who’ve experienced war, and are among its victims, is the spine of the story. To take part in future Bookclubs apply at bookclub@bbc.co.uk Presenter : James Naughtie Producer : Dymphna Flynn October's Bookclub Choice : The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (2017)

Owen Sheers talks about his novel I Saw A Man with James Naughtie and a group of readers at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea. After the sudden loss of his wife, Michael Turner moves from Wales to London to start again. Living on a quiet street in Hampstead, he develops a close bond with the Nelson family next door: Josh, Samantha and their two young daughters. The friendship between Michael and the Nelsons at first seems to offer the prospect of healing, and then one Saturday afternoon in June 2008 Michael steps through the Nelsons’ back door, thinking their house is empty and everything changes. Meanwhile thousands of miles away, just outside of Las Vegas, a man is setting in motion a change of events which eventually come to puncture life on that Hampstead Street. And Michael finds himself bearing the burden of grief and a secret. Presenter : James Naughtie Producer : Dymphna Flynn September's Bookclub Choice : The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (2011)

On April 23, 2019, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring poet Nikky Finney. Introduced by Aminatta Forna. Nikky Finney is the author of the poetry collections Head Off & Split (TriQuarterly Books, 2011), winner of the 2011 National Book Award; The World Is Round (InnerLight Publishing, 2003); Rice (Sister Vision, 1995); and On Wings Made of Gauze (W. Morrow, 1985). She has been a faculty member at Cave Canem, a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets, and professor for twenty-three years at the University of Kentucky. Music: Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.

Eleanor speaks with Alexa von Hirschberg, a senior commissioning editor at Bloomsbury Publishing. Alexa began her career in 2007 at Canongate Books. In 2008 she joined Bloomsbury as an editorial assistant, working with authors including Colum McCann, Lawrence Norfolk, Margaret Atwood and William Boyd. Today her list includes Kate Tempest, Reni Eddo-Lodge, Aminatta Forna, Alexei Sayle and Laurie Penny. We spoke about how Alexa found her way through the British publishing landscape, the experience of editing Reni Eddo-Lodge and the demands of writing cover copy for Margaret Atwood. You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways, and on Facebook at facebook.com/alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Eleanor Halls and Simon Akam, and produced by Nicola Kean. Zahra Hankir is our communities editor. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar.

In this Episode C.D. and Amanda take some time to reflect on the last year and look forward to 2019. This is the longest show notes and link list we've done by about 200%. So we've pulled our 2 call-outs to the top of the list! 1. We are collecting ideas for the 2019 SKill Series. If there are skills you think we should add to the list let us know @overconflict or www.facebook.com/overconflict 2. Happiness by Aminatta Forna is the CoRe Reads holiday book club pick. Read it with us over the holidays. C.D. Co-Chaired the BC CLE Conflict Resolutiuon Conference 2018 - Evolving Practices for Changing Times Amanda has been studying Conversational Intelligence with Judith Glaser. Judith passed away last week and will be greatly missed by the entire CIQ community. You can find out more about Judith and her work at www.conversationalintelligence.com As we begin a season filled with family visits we are reminded of some of the great advice from Episode 24 - Curiousity for Better Holidays with Kathy Taberner and Kirsten Taberner Siggins   Skill Series Did you enjoy last year's skill series? Are there skills you really think we should do next year? Let us know which ones you would love to see covered @overconflict C.D. and Amanda found a different set of last year's series really useful Which were your favourites? We've gathered them all here for you just in case you want a refresher! Episode 25 - Spotlight on Paraphrasing with Luke Weisner Episode 26 - Spotlight on Effective Questions with Cinnie Noble Episode 27 - Spotlight on Reframing with Stephanie Grunze-Swanson Episode 28 - Spotlight on Boundaries with Lorraine Segal Episode 29 - Spotlight on Assertiveness with Dr. Michael Talbot Episode 30 - Process Management with Gordon Sloan   Will you join C.D. and Amanda in reading Happiness by Aminatta Forna for CoRe Reads? CoRe Reads is a holiday book club for Conflict Resolution professionals. This year's book was chosen through a consensus process led by Wendy Lakusta You can see the full video of Wendy Lakusta's facilitation here, after watching the video myself I plan to read all 3 books over my holidays! Julie Daum - Happiness by Amminata Forna Aaron Leakey - Blindness by Jose Saramago Darsey Meredith - Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi Julie Daum, CoRe Reads, C.D. and Amanda will be debriefing the book in January, date to be determined. We will announce the date once we know it on twitter and in our newsletter. Have a Wonderful Holidays! Talk Soon!

Reverend Ed Bacon was rector of the largest Episcopal Church in the Western United States for over 20 years. He continued the church's long tradition of working for LGBTQ rights, furthering their interfaith and peace objectives and since retiring continues to make a difference in the world each and every day.  A favorite guest on Oprah Winfrey's Super Soul Sunday series, Ed's book 8 Habits of Love: Open Your Heart, Open Your Mind reminds us why.  The book is full of the wisdom we all love:  simple, elegant and easily accessible for all faiths and all levels of personal transformation.  He and his book are heart-opening and love-inspired. In this interview Ed shares his thoughts on how we can take care of our hearts in this world that can feel more full of fear than love.  He talks about how we can heal our individual and collective pains around the topics of Anthony Bourdain's recent suicide, school shootings,  and more.  He gives many helpful tips for heart healing and heart care: developing a stillness practice, cultivating a gentle and sweet heart, sharing love, raising children as divine beings, and connecting through love and God... and more! About midway through the interview, Bacon mentions this bit of inspiration from Aminatta Forna, which is definitely worth a listen: PBS News Hour with Aminatta Forna  

In May 2018's podcast we look at the intrigues of ecosystems, and the books that delve right in to them. Which fury or winged inhabitants really belong in our cities, and who's to say if they don't? What happened to European rabbits under Henry VIIIs reign and do sea gulls qualify as wilderness? Also featuring an interview with the award-winning novelist Aminatta Forna about her new novel 'Happiness'. Hosted by Jessica Johannesson. Music: 'Fortune's Never Kind' by The Bookshop Band.

Gin Jenny and Special Guest Star Alexis talk about the do's and don'ts of book clubs and book swaps, then review Aminatta Forna's latest book Happiness.

In 2011, Jesmyn Ward won the National Book Award for Salvage the Bones, and last year, she became the first woman to ever win twice. This time it was for Sing, Unburied, Sing, an American epic that earned her comparisons to William Faulkner and Toni Morrison. As Leonie, a mother struggling with drug abuse, drives with her children to bring her husband home from Parchman Farm, Mississippi’s state penitentiary, she and her thirteen-year-old son Jojo are visited by two ghosts. While Leonie waits for visits from her dead brother, Jojo hears from a boy his own age, the ghost of a dead Parchman inmate who carries all the ugly history of the South with him in death.Ward is in conversation with Aminatta Forna, Lannan Visiting Chair of Poetics at Georgetown University and author of five books, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize-winning The Memory of Love and, most recently, Happiness.https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781501126062Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week’s show, Claire and Sian discuss their favourite whodunnits, plus Aminatta Forna talks about her fourth novel, Happiness

Let The Sunshine In, directed by Claire Denis is a French film starring Juliette Binoche as a divorced Parisienne dealing with love and looking for a relationship that will work for her The latest West End jukebox musical Tina is about the tumultuous life of Tina Turner and her transformation from Anna Mae Bullock - born into rural poverty in the Southern USA - into half of Ike-and-Tina-Turner and a disastrous violent marriage into a world-conquering solo superstar Aminatta Forna's new novel Happiness follows the story of two strangers who bump into each other on Waterloo Bridge in London and their intertwining narratives. An urban wildlife expert and a psychiatrist specialising in PTSD share a lot in common Marina Amaral is a photograph colourisation expert and her work is much admired. She has colourised photographs of prisoners at Auschwitz and gained plaudits from the general public and survivors groups but does altering a historical document change our understanding of its meaning? BBC TV's latest Sunday night series is an adaptation of Wilkie Collins' The Woman In White Tom Sutcliffe's guests are David Olusoga, Shahidha Bari and Maev Kennedy. The producer is Oliver Jones.

The chance meeting of a Ghanaian psychiatrist and an American urban biologist tracking foxes in London sets the pace for Happiness, the latest novel by award-winning writer Aminatta Forna. Does experiencing a traumatic event damage a person forever? Dr. Attila Asare, bucking traditional trauma research, examines his theory partially through flashbacks for the reader, as well as his attention to a case that he is indirectly tied to. Noted trauma specialist Dr. Attila Asare comes to London for a conference, plans to visit a relative and see an old flame. He is recovering from the recent death of his wife. Scientist Jean Turane is tracking foxes in London for a project when she becomes involved in Asare's life. She engages a team she has created of fox spotters-- immigrants to the UK who work at night as street cleaners, doormen -- to look for his lost young relative on the streets of London. Forna sets up the back story of Dr Attila Asare, a civilian trauma expert, as she reads an excerpt from her novel, Happiness. Loss and newfound love come together on the page in her latest work.    

Aminatta Forna is the author of the novels The Hired Man, The Memory of Love and Ancestor Stones, and the memoir The Devil that Danced on the Water. Her books have won multiple prizes, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Book Award, and been shortlisted for many others, among them the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Neustadt Prize, the Samuel Johnson Prize and the Dublin International IMPAC Award. In 2014 Forna won the Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prize, an award from Yale University in honour of an author's body of work. Forna has acted as judge for a number of literary awards, including the International Man Booker. She is currently Lannan Visiting Chair of Poetics at Georgetown University and Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. In 2017, she was awarded an OBE. Her latest novel is Happiness. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Prize-winning author Aminatta Forna on the many different ingredients that make up her new novel, Happiness, a multi-layered story set in modern London, seen from the perspective of those passing through.The Alpha male sweeping a woman off her feet has long been a common trope in romantic fiction but can it survive in a world where the #MeToo movement has transformed the debate around gender politics?The Hollywood sign, on Mount Lee in Los Angeles, is one of the world's most famous cultural icons. The original 45-feet tall sign sat on Hollywood Hills from 1923 until 1978, before it fell into disrepair and was replaced. Sculptor and collector Bill Mack bought the original sign. He talks to Front Row about its history and explains why he is taking the H on tour around the world. And we hear about Blackpool's plans to open a museum celebrating its past as Britain's first mass seaside resort. Aided by a grant from the government's Northern Cultural Regeneration Fund, the museum will form part of the legacy of the Great Exhibition of the North.

On today's episode Adam is back in the office from a whole bunch of travels just in time for our April book picks! Join in as Jill and Adam get a little weird talking Zelda, Duck Tales and, of course, the books they're most excited about coming out this month!   Books mentioned in this episode Circe by Madeline Miller   The Geraldo Show by Geraldo Rivera   Noir by Christopher Moore   My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris   Rebound by Kwame Brown   Sunny by Jason Reynolds   Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes   God Save Texas by Lawrence Wright   The Only Story by Julian Barnes   Inseparable by Yunte Huang   Happiness by Aminatta Forna   The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson   The Milk Lady of Bangalore by Shoba Narayan   The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman   Natural Causes by Barbara Ehrenreich   Make Trouble by Cecile Richards   My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie   How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee   Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller   The Library by Stuart Kells   North by Scott Jurek   Say Hello! Find us on Instagram and Twitter at @ProBookNerds. Email us directly at professionalbooknerds@overdrive.com Music "Buddy" provided royalty free from www.bensound.com Podcast Overview We're not just book nerds: we're professional book nerds and the staff librarians who work at OverDrive, the leading app for eBooks and audiobooks available through public libraries and schools. Hear about the best books we've read, get personalized recommendations, and learn about the hottest books coming out that we can't wait to dive into. For more great reads, find OverDrive on Facebook and Twitter.

Aminatta Forna OBE, author of The Devil that Danced on the Water, talks to Dr Catherine Gilbert about silence, narrative and resilience in Sierra Leone.

Aminatta Forna gives a reading from her award-winning novel, The Memory of Love (2010), and discusses it with Prof. Ankhi Mukherjee. She talks about the psychology of war and healing after conflict, and about love, betrayal and complicity.

Aminatta Forna gives a reading from her award-winning novel, The Memory of Love (2010), and discusses it with Prof. Ankhi Mukherjee. She talks about the psychology of war and healing after conflict, and about love, betrayal and complicity.

Rich Levy is the executive director of Inprint and the author of a beautiful book of poetry: "Why Me". Inprint just announced a new spectacular season of readings by some of today's best contemporary authors. All tickets are only $5! The Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series will kick off on September 18 with readings by Nathan Englander & Nicole Krauss. Jennifer Egan & Claire Messud appear on November 6 and Viet Thanh Nguyen will be here on November 13. Next year, Inprint welcomes Jhumpa Lahiri, Paul Auster, Aminatta Forna, Samanta Schweblin, Rigoberto González and Kevin Prufer.And that's not all. Inprint also presents Cool Brains, its FREE readings for kids. Kids will get to meet Katherine Paterson ("Bridge to Terabithia") and Ann Martin ("The Baby-Sitters Club" novels). Check out their website: www.inprinthouston.org

The writer Viv Groskop reflects on the life of the Soviet-era poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, best known for his epic work Babi Yar, who died at the weekend aged 84.The shortlist for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction is announced live by judge and novelist Aminatta Forna, who discusses the novels that made it though from the longlist of 16.Pulitzer Prize nominee Rajiv Joseph discusses the European premiere of his award-winning play Guards at the Taj. Taking as its starting point the legends surrounding the building of the Taj Mahal, Joseph's play examines the human price paid throughout history for the whims of those in power.The duelling Slovakian violinists, brothers Vladimir and Anton Jablokov, who have performed on the Last Night of the Proms, bring their instruments to the Front Row studio, and discuss the influence of their Russian grandfather on their choice of the music they perform.Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Shelter in Place (Europa Editions)   Set in the Pacific Northwest in the jittery, jacked-up early 1990s, Shelter in Place, by one of America’s most thrillingly defiant contemporary authors, is a stylish literary novel about the hereditary nature of mental illness, the fleeting intensity of youth, the obligations of family, and the dramatic consequences of love. Joseph March, a twenty-one year-old working class kid from Seattle, has just graduated college, has fallen in love with the fiercely independent Tess Wolff, and his future beckons, unencumbered, limitless, magnificent. Joe’s life implodes when he starts to suffer the symptoms of bipolar disorder, and, not long after, his mother kills a man she’s never met with a hammer. Later, spurred on by his mother’s example and her growing fame, Tess enlists Joe in a secret, violent plan that will forever change their lives. Maksik sings of modern America’s battered soul and of the lacerating emotions that make us human. Magnetic and masterfully told, Shelter in Place is about the things in life we are willing to die for, and those we’re willing to kill for. Praise for Shelter in Place “Shelter in Place is a magnificent novel. Alexander Maksik charts the legacy of violence and the limits of justice with grace, power, and clarity.”—Anthony Marra, author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena “Unsettling and honest, a remarkably insightful portrait of mental illness, Shelter in Place is elegiac, savage and mournful, a beautifully written novel about the echoes of our actions, of love and its consequences.”—Aminatta Forna, author of The Hired Man “Shelter In Place is a love story like none I’ve ever read before…Densely ruminative, and bracingly unromantic, the ballad of Tess, Joe, and his parents tests the brutal outer-limits of patriarchy, the bleak realities of untreated mental illness, and the nature of loyalty in a world where every woman is out for herself.  And every man, as well.”—Kate Bolick, author of Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own  “An unsettling and beautiful exploration of mental illness, love, violence, family and sexual politics. Maksik’s artful story outruns all sorts of received ideas and cliched narratives...You’ll be haunted by it in the best possible way.”—Katie Roiphe, author of The Violet Hour “On every page we’re reminded of the paradox of how mysterious, thorny, and delicate family relationships can be.”—Kirkus Reviews Alexander Maksik is the author of the novels You Deserve Nothing and A Marker to Measure Drift, which was a New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2013, as well as finalist for both the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing and Le Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger. His writing has appeared in The Pushcart Prize Anthology, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Harper's, Tin House, Harvard Review, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and Narrative Magazine, among other publications. He is a contributing editor at Condé Nast Traveler, and his work has been translated into more than a dozen languages. He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize as well as fellowships from the Truman Capote Literary Trust and The Corporation of Yaddo. Marisa Silver is the author of the novel Mary Coin, a New York Times bestseller and winner of the Southern California Independent Bookseller’s Award. She is also the author of The God of War (a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist); No Direction Home; and two story collections, Alone with You and Babe in Paradise (a New York Times Notable Book and Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year). Silver’s fiction has won the O. Henry Award and been included in The Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and other anthologies. She lives in Los Angeles.

Windham Campbell Prize winner Aminatta Forna reads from her new novel The Hired Man. Recorded live at the glittering Mondrian Hotel in London. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Moor's Account (Pantheon) Tonight's reading is part of the Los Angeles/Islam Arts Initiative (LA/IAI). From the author of Secret Son and Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits comes  The Moor's Account, the imagined memoirs of the New World's first explorer of African descent, a Moroccan slave known as Estebanico. In 1527, Panfilo de Narvaez sailed from Spain with a crew of six hundred men, intending to claim for the Spanish crown what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States. But from the moment the expedition reached Florida, it met with ceaseless bad luck--storms, disease, starvation, hostile natives--and within a year there were only four survivors, including the young explorer Andres Dorantes and his slave, Estebanico. After six years of enslavement by Native Americans, the four men escaped and wandered through what is now Florida, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The Moor's Account brilliantly captures Estebanico's voice and vision, giving us an alternate narrative for this famed expedition. As this dramatic chronicle unfolds, we come to understand that, contrary to popular belief, black men played a significant part in New World exploration, and that Native American men and women were not merely silent witnesses to it. In Laila Lalami's deft hands, Estebanico's memoir illuminates the ways in which stories can transmigrate into history, even as storytelling can offer a chance at redemption and survival. Praise for The Moor's Account “A beautiful, rousing tale that would be difficult to believe if it were not actually true. Lalami has once again shown why she is one of her generation's most gifted writers.” —Reza Aslan, author of Zealot “¡Qué belleza! Laila Lalami has given us a mesmerizing reimagining of one of the foundational chronicles of exploration of the New World and an indictment of the uncontainable hubris displayed by Spanish explorers—told from the point of view of Estebanillo, an Arab slave and Cabeza de Vaca's companion in a trek across the United States that is as important as that of Lewis and Clark. The style and voice of sixteenth-century crónicas are turned upside down to subtly undermine our understanding of race and religion, now and then. The Moor's Account is a worthy stepchild of Don Quixote de la Mancha.”—Ilan Stavans, author of On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language and general editor of The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature “A novel of extraordinary scope, ambition and originality. Laila Lalami has given voice to a man silenced by for five centuries, a voice both convincing and compelling. The Moor's Account is a work of creativity and compassion, one which demonstrates the full might of Lalami's talent as a writer.”—Aminatta Forna, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and Hurston Prize Legacy Award winning author of The Memory of Love, Ancestor Stones, and The Devil That Danced on the Water Laila Lalami was born and raised in Morocco. She attended Université Mohammed V in Rabat, University College in London, and the University of Southern California, where she earned a Ph.D. in linguistics. She is the author of the short story collection Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award, and the novel Secret Son, which was on the Orange Prize longlist. Her essays and opinion pieces have appeared in Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, The Guardian, The New York Times, and in numerous anthologies. Her work has been translated into ten languages. She is the recipient of a British Council Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Lannan Foundation Residency Fellowship, and is currently an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California at Riverside. This reading is a part of the Los Angeles / Islam Arts Initiative (LA/IAI) Launching this fall, the Los Angeles / Islam Arts Initiative (LA/IAI) brings together nearly 30 cultural institutions throughout Los Angeles to tell various stories of traditional and contemporary art from multiple Islamic regions and their significant global diasporas. LA/IAI is the first-of-its kind, wide-scale citywide initiative on Islamic arts producing and presenting programming such as art exhibitions, panels, discussions, and performances. Anchoring LA/IAI are two connected exhibitions, Doris Duke's Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape, and Islamic Art and the contemporary art exhibition, Shangri La: Imagined Cities commissioned by the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) to be held at DCA's Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG) at Barnsdall Park from October 26 to December 28, 2014. Los Angeles' substantial populations from areas with strong Islamic roots make LA a compelling location for this initiative. LA/IAI casts a wide net, being inclusive and welcoming, with art as its central focus. The term “Islamic art” includes work created by non-Muslim artists from Muslim-dominant countries, work by Muslims creating art in non-Muslim dominant countries, and work by artists culturally influenced by Islam. Designed to build a greater understanding of the role of Islamic arts, LA/IAI seeks to stimulate the global conversation in connection to cultural, political, and social issues. The celebration of Islamic art and culture is presented by DCA with major support from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Community Foundation, the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), and the Barnsdall Park Foundation. For more information, please visit:  http://www.laislamarts.org/

Notting Hill film director Roger Michell and writer Aminatta Forna talk about books they love with Harriett Gilbert - including The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, WWI classic Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves and The Rabbit House by Laura Alcoba, a compelling Argentinian memoir. Producer Beth O'Dea

From human rights in Africa to the importance of education for girls and boys and now the impact of war and the silence that follows in Croatia; hear from one of contemporary Africa's important and perceptive chroniclers as she joins us to discuss her newest novel, The Hired Man, set in a Croatian town that is still recovering from the indelible effects of war. Aminatta Forna was raised in Sierra Leone and Britain and now divides her time between London and Sierra Leone. She is the award-winning author of The Memory of Love, The Devil that Danced on the Water, and a memoir of her dissident father, Ancestor Stones. Aminatta is Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and currently holds the post of Sterling Brown Distinguished Visiting Professor at Williams College, Massachusetts. Her books have been translated into fifteen languages, and her work has appeared in The Sunday Times, The Observer, Granta, The Times, The Observer and Vogue. Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Lecturer/Writer and MoAD Board Member, was raised in Nigeria and has lived in Kenya, France, and England. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and currently teaches literature at San Francisco State University. Her writing includes essays, academic papers, reviews and short stories. Sarah's first novel, In Dependence, is published by Legend Press (London) and Cassava Republic Press (Abuja). This program was co-presented by the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) and the International Museum of Women (IMOW).

Matthew Sweet leads an elite party of literary explorers - Linda Grant, Aminatta Forna, Naomi Alderman and Tim Stanley on an expedition to find "the common reader" -- being stalked by Woolf in the 20th Century and by Johnson in the 18th. Both believed that the common reader "uncorrupted with literary prejudices" was the final arbiter of "poetical honours" so it's a quest that's clearly still relevant today. The question is what does a common reader look like in our digital age? What are they reading? Where? And how?

Matthew Sweet is leading an elite party of literary explorers - Linda Grant, Aminatta Forna, Naomi Alderman and Tim Stanley on an expedition to find "the common reader" -- being stalked by Woolf in the 20th Century and by Johnson in the 18th. Both believed that the common reader "uncorrupted with literary prejudices" was the final arbiter of "poetical honours" so it's a quest that's clearly still relevant today. The question is what does a common reader look like in our digital age? What are they reading? Where? And how?

Martin Davidson; Peter York; Esther Freud and Aminatta Forna. Part of the Names Not Numbers 2013 symposium www.namesnotnumbers.com

Aminatta Forna discusses her latest novel The Hired Man. Mariella delves into the state of the Russian literary scene with Russian Booker winning author Mikhail Shishkin and publisher and editor Natasha Perova. And in the year of the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Water-Babies, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst describes the eccentric life of its author and why he feels it still remains a fantastic story for children.

Anne McElvoy discusses the libraries of Timbuktu, and what they teach us about literacy and book culture in Africa, with Dr Shamil Jeppie, Dr Marion Wallace, Head of African Collections at the British Library, and the novelist Aminatta Forna. Susannah Clapp delivers a first-night review of a revival of Harold Pinter's play, Old Times. Historian Paul Kennedy delves into the story of the problem solvers of the Second War, the subject of his new book The Engineers of Victory. And Karl Sharro gives us his reflections from the top of The Shard.

Writer and broadcaster Aminatta Forna is in the presenter's chair this week talking to Pat Barker about Toby's Room, her latest novel set around the First World War. And authors DJ Taylor and Linda Grant discuss the topic: questions never to ask an author.

Veteran war reporter Kate Adie and novelist Aminatta Forna discuss Margaret Atwood's groundbreaking feminist novel, 'The Handmaid's Tale', twenty five years after its publication, in which a religious revolution has overthrown the American government. Anne McElvoy presents. Producer Laura Thomas.

Harriett Gilbert and her guests, the historian Gus Casely-Hayford and educationalist Martin Stephen, consider a clutch of favourite reads. 'The Memory of Love' by Aminatta Forna, 'Pavel and I' by Dan Vyleta and a selection of Thomas Hardy's verse.

Aminatta Forna explores the delights and challenges of the short story. Author and creative writing Tessa Hadley discusses the history and development of the short story, from Edgar Allan Poe, through Chekhov, Mansfield and Monroe, and short story writers Helen Simpson and Jon McGregor, along with Dept. Editor of Granta Magazine Ellah Allfrey discuss what makes a great short story.

The International Museum of Women in partnership with the World Affairs Council presents a conversation with author and journalist Aminatta Forna. From human rights in Africa, to the importance of education for girls and boys, Forna will discuss her newest novel, The Memory of Love. Set in post-colonial Sierra Leone a few years after the civil war, The Memory of Love offers a view of modern Africa through the eyes of both insiders and outsiders who struggle to cope with the aftermath of a war waged against and among civilians. Forna’s novel depicts a deeply hopeful and universal story about love and human resilience. Raised in Sierra Leone as the daughter of a former Sierra Leonean cabinet minister and dissident, Forna’s writing has been dominated by the tortuous events of her country’s history. She is the author of a previous novel, Ancestor Stones, and a memoir, The Devil that Danced on the Water. In 2003, Forna helped build a primary school in her family's village of Rogbonko, where she is also working to establish a cashew plantation named Kholifa Estates after the fictional plantation in Ancestor Stones.