Nadifa Mohamed

Nadifa Mohamed
نظيفة محمد
Born Nadiifa Maxamed
1981 (age 35–36)
Hargeisa, Somalia
Nationality British, born Somali[1]
Alma mater University of Oxford
Occupation novelist
Movement Realism, historical fiction

Nadifa Mohamed (Somali: Nadiifa Maxamed, Arabic: نظيفة محمد‎‎) (born 1981 in Hargeisa, Somalia) is a Somali-British novelist.

Personal life

Mohamed was born in 1981 in Hargeisa, Somalia.[2] Her father was a sailor in the merchant navy and her mother was a local landlady.[3] In 1986, she moved with her family to London for what was intended to be a temporary stay. However, the civil war broke out shortly afterwards in Somalia, so they remained in the UK.[4]

Mohamed later attended the University of Oxford, where she studied history and politics. In 2008, she visited Hargeisa for the first time in over a decade.[4]

Mohamed presently resides in London and is working on her third novel.[4]

Literary career

Mohamed's first novel, Black Mamba Boy (2009), is a semi-biographical account of her father's life in Yemen in the 1930s and '40s, during the colonial period.[5][6] She has said that "the novel grew out of a desire to learn more about my roots, to elucidate Somali history for a wider audience and to tell a story that I found fascinating."[3] A "fictionalized biography", it won critical and popular acclaim in countries as far away as Korea.[7] The book won the 2010 Betty Trask Award, and was shortlisted for numerous awards, including the 2010 Guardian First Book Award,[8] the 2010 Dylan Thomas Prize,[9] and the 2010 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.[10] It was also long-listed for the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction.[11]

In 2013, Mohamed released her second novel, The Orchard of Lost Souls.[12] Set in Somalia on the eve of the civil war, it was published by Simon & Schuster.[13] Reviewing it in The Independent, Arifa Akbar said: "If Mohamed's first novel was about fathers and sons ... this one is essentially about mothers and daughters."[14]

In December 2013, Mohamed was one of 36 writer and translator participants at the Doha International Book Fair's Literary Translation Summit in Qatar.[15]

She was chosen as one of Granta magazine's "Best of Young British Novelists" in 2013,[16] and in April 2014 was selected for the Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature.[17]

Awards

Works

References

  1. ↑ "Nadifa Mohamed - Literature". Literature.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 2017-03-08.
  2. ↑ Nadifa Mohamed, HarperCollins Author Profile
  3. 1 2 "WDN Interview with Nadifa Mohamed: The Author of Black Mamba Boy", WardheerNews, 21 April 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 "Nadifa Mohamed". Simon and Schuster. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  5. ↑ Arifa Akbar, "Black Mamba Boy, By Nadifa Mohamed" (review), The Independent, 15 January 2010.
  6. ↑ Hassan M. Abukar, "Black Mamba Boy: A Book Review", WardheerNews, 30 October 2010.
  7. ↑ "Nadifa Mohamed in conversation with Ellah Allfrey". Rift Valley Institute. 21 June 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  8. ↑ Benedicte Page, "Guardian first book award shortlist revealed", The Guardian, 29 October 2010.
  9. ↑ "Somali author Nadifa Mohamed up for first book prize", BBC, 28 October 2010.
  10. ↑ "Shortlist announced for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2010". BookTrust. Archived from the original on 27 November 2010.
  11. ↑ "Black Mamba Boy", Orange Prize for Fiction.
  12. ↑ Maya Jaggi, "The Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed – review. The Betty Trask award winner takes on a complex history of Somalian civil unrest with a focus on women", The Guardian, 14 September 2013.
  13. ↑ "The Orchard of Lost Souls". The Lady. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  14. ↑ Arifa Akbar, "Book review: The Orchard of Lost Souls, By Nadifa Mohamed", The Independent, 16 August 2013.
  15. ↑ "Doha International Book Fair Opens". Marhaba. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
  16. ↑ "Granta 123: Best of Young British Novelists 4". Granta (123). 2013. Archived from the original on 17 April 2013.
  17. ↑ Nadifa Mohamed page at Africa39.
  18. ↑ Richard Lea (27 August 2010). "Guardian first book award longlist ranges around the world". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
  19. ↑ Annalisa Quinn (15 April 2013). "Granta's 'Best of Young British Novelists' Shows A 'Disunited Kingdom'". Granta. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  20. ↑ "Africa39" (PDF). Hay Festival. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
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