Nuruddin Farah: "Remembering Somalia: A Writer Speaks"

Nuraddin Farah is the first African to win the Neustadt International Prize for Literature (in 1998). He has been described by some of the world's foremost writers not just as "one of the finest contemporary African novelists" (Salman Rushdie), but "one of the world's great writers" (Ishmael Reed). Farah is the author of nine novels, including From a Crooked Rib, Links, and his Blood in the Sun triology: Maps, Gifts, and Secrets. His novels have been translated inot seventeen languages and have won numerous awards. Upon the publication of Sweet and Sour Milk, which won the English-speaking Union Literary Award, Farah became persona non grata in Somalia. In exile, he began what has become a lifelong project: "To keep my country alive by writing about it." Born in Baidoa, Somalia, Farah now lives in Cape Town, South Africa. In recent years, he has made frequent visits to Mogadishu for research purposes and to broke dialogue between the various armed groups vying for power in Somalia. This lecture is the inagural event of this year's President and Provost's Diversity Lecture & Cultural Arts Series.

A book signing and reception immediately follows the event. RSVP to waugh.2@osu.edu.

Cosponsored by the Humanities Institute, Center for African Studies, and the departments of African American and African Studies and Comparative Studies.