Ayesha Harruna Attah

Ayesha Harruna Attah (born December 1983) is a Ghanaian-born fiction writer.[1][2] She lives in Senegal.[3]

Ayesha Harruna Attah
BornDecember 1983
Accra, Ghana
OccupationNovelist
NationalityGhanaian
GenreFiction

Early years and education

Ayesha Harruna Attah was born in Accra, Ghana, in the 1980s, under a military government, to a mother who was a journalist and father who was a graphic designer.[4] Attah has said: "My parents were my first major influences. They ran a literary magazine called Imagine, which had stories about Accra; articles on art, science, film, books; cartoons—which I especially loved. They were (and still are) my heroes. I discovered Toni Morrison when I was thirteen, and I was hooked. I devoured everything she wrote. I remember reading Paradise, and while its meaning completely evaded me then, I was left feeling like it was the most amazing book written and that one day I wanted to write a world full of strong female characters, just like Ms. Morrison had done."[5]

After growing up in Accra she moved to Massachusetts and studied Biochemistry at Mount Holyoke College,[6] and then Columbia University,[7] and she received an MFA in Creative Writing at New York University.[8][3]

Writing

She has published three novels.[3] Her debut book Harmattan Rain (2009) was written as the result of a fellowship from Per Ankh Publishers — under the mentorship of Ghanaian novelist Ayi Kwei Armah — and TrustAfrica,[9] and was shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Africa Region).[10] Her second novel Saturday's Shadows, published by World Editions[11] in 2015,[12] was nominated for the Kwani? Manuscript Project,[13] and has been published in Dutch (De Geus).[14] Her third novel is The Hundred Wells of Salaga, dealing with "relationships, desires and struggles in women’s lives in Ghana in the late 19th century during the scramble for Africa".[15]

As a 2014 AIR Award laureate, Attah was a writer-in-residence at the Instituto Sacatar in Bahia, Brazil.[16] She also won the Miles Morland Foundation Scholarship in 2016 for a proposed non-fiction book on the history of the kola nut.[17]

Harmattan Rain

Harmattan Rain was written in 2009, following the story of three-generation Ghanaian family, including Lizzie-Achiaa, Akua Afriyie and Sugri.

Lizzie-Achiaa was the brave matriarch of their family, who ran off looking for her lover and at the same time pursuing a nursing career. Her rebellious daughter, artist Akua Afriye, strikes out on her own as a single parent in a country rocked by successive coups, and Akua Afriye's only daughter Sugri was a lovely, smart girl who grew up too sheltered then leaves home for university in New York, where she learns that sometimes one can have too much freedom.[18]

Saturday's Shadows

Set in 1990s West Africa, Saturday's Shadows is about "a family that is struggling to maintain its cohesion in the midst of a tenuous political setting", of which it has been said: "Attah proves once again her proficiency as a writer. She demonstrates her dexterity as a writer with the accuracy and lucidity of her character development."[19]

Works

Novels

  • Harmattan Rain Popenguine, Senegal, West Africa : Per Ankh, 2008. ISBN 9782911928123, OCLC 310739454
  • Saturday's Shadows London : World Editions, 2015. ISBN 9789462380431, OCLC 903399393
  • The Hundred Wells of Salaga New York : Other Press, 2019. ISBN 9781590519950, OCLC 1035458812

Essays

  • "Skinny Mini", Ugly Duckling Diaries, July 2015[20]
  • "The Intruder", New York Times Magazine, September 2015[21]

Other writing

  • "Second Home, Plus Yacht", Yachting Magazine, October 2007[22]
  • "Incident on the way to the Bakoy Market", Asymptote Magazine, 2013[23]

References

  1. Lee, A. C. (14 November 2013). "Young African Writers Hold Forth in Brooklyn". New York Times.
  2. Patrick, Diane (6 December 2013). "African-American Books Around the World". Publishers Weekly.
  3. "Ayesha Harruna Attah'". Pontas Agency.
  4. Ayesha Harruna Attah, "Why I Write" Archived 2016-07-31 at the Wayback Machine, Authors — World Editions, 30 September 2015.
  5. Daniel Musiitwa, "Interview with Ghanaian Author Ayesha Harruna Attah", Africa Book Club, 1 May 2015.
  6. "Mount Holyoke Event Archive: 2008-2015". Archived from the original on 2016-04-27. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  7. "Alumni Bookshelf". Columbia Alumni Association. Archived from the original on 2016-08-07.
  8. "Ayesha: Ghana's rising literary icon". CP Africa. 1 April 2010.
  9. "Interview with Ghanaian Writer, Ayesha Harruna Attah", Geosi Reads, 11 March 2013.
  10. "Shortlists for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize – Africa Region". Books Live.
  11. James, Anna (13 October 2014). "Visser of De Geus launches English language publisher". The Bookseller.
  12. Attah, Ayesha (2015). Saturday's Shadows. World Editions. ISBN 978-94-6238-043-1.
  13. "Kwani? Manuscript Project Shortlist". Kwani?. 17 June 2013.
  14. "English and Dutch Debut for New-York Based Ghanian Writer Ayesha H. Attah". Book Trade. 1 April 2014. Archived from the original on 14 August 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  15. "One Hundred Wells" page at Pontas Agency.
  16. Koinange, Wanjiru (11 September 2014). "Introducing the 2014 Artists in Residency Award Laureates". Africa Centre.
  17. "Morland Writing Scholarships for 2016". Miles Morland Foundation.
  18. Darkowaa Adu-Kofi (2 September 2014). "A review of Harmattan Rain, by Ayesha Harruna Attah". Ayiba Magazine. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
  19. "Saturday’s Shadows by Ayesha Harruna Attah", Conscientization 101.
  20. Attah, Ayesha (July 2015). "Skinni Mini". Ugly Duckling Diaries.
  21. Attah, Ayesha (September 4, 2015). "The Intruder". The New York Times Magazine.
  22. Attah, Ayesha (3 October 2007). "Second Home, Plus Yacht". Yachting Magazine.
  23. Attah, Ayesha (2013). "Incident on the way to the Bakoy Market". Asymptote Magazine.
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