Archives: Bio

Jérôme Tubiana is a journalist and researcher, specialised in African conflicts. He writes for many newspapers including the London Review of Books and Foreign policy. He is the author of a book of photographic chronicles on Darfour. In collaboration with illustrator Alexandre Franc, Jérôme Tubiana wrote Guantánamo Kid: The True Story of Mohammed El-Gharani (SelfMadeHero, 2019), a graphic novel endorsed by Amnesty International. The book was translated into six languages, received the award of the best non-fiction graph

Related / Latest Publication:

Guantanamo Kid. The True Story of Mohammed El-Gharani, translated by Edward Gauvin (SelfMadeHero)

© Philippe Matsas

Born in 1981 in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Fiston Mwanza Mujila is a poet, novelist and playwright. Tram 83 (Jacaranda Books), his first novel, longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize and the Prix du Monde and was awarded the Etisalat Prize for Literature and the Internationaler Literaturpreis from Der Haus der Kulturen der Welt. He lives and teaches in Graz, Austria.

Related / Latest Publication:

Tram 83, translated by Roland Glasser (Jacaranda Books, 2015)

© Thibaut de Corday

Born in Rwanda in 1956, Scholastique Mukasonga settled in France in 1992, only two years before the brutal genocide of the Tutsi swept through Rwanda. Gallimard published her autobiographical account Inyenzi ou les Cafards, which marked Mukasonga's entry into literature. This was followed by the publication of La femme aux pieds nus in 2008 and L’Iguifou in 2010, both widely praised. Her first novel, Notre-Dame du Nil, won the Ahmadou Kourouma prize and the Renaudot prize in 2012, as well as the 2013 Océans France Ô prize, and the 2014 French Voices Award, and was shortlisted for the 2016 International Dublin Literary award.

Related / Latest Publication:

Our Lady of the Nile, translated by Melanie Mauthner (Archipelago Books, 2014)

© J. Foley

Nathalie Léger was born in 1960 and is the author of four books of fiction based on her research work as a curator, as well as a collection of illustrated, aphoristic flash-fiction, published under a pseudonym. Her UK debut Suite for Barbara Loden garnered intense critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic and was translated into several European languages. Together with The White Dress, her second novel Exposition, published in the UK by Les Fugitives, will be published in the US later this year for the 10th anniversary of Dorothy Project, an American independent literary press publishing only two books a year.

Related / Latest Publication:

The White Dress, translated by Natasha Lehrer (Les Fugitives, 2020).

Paul Gravett is a writer, critic, curator, publisher and broadcaster who has been working in the comics industry since 1981. He is the author of many books about comics, including Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics, Graphic Novels: Stories to Change Your Life and Comics Art, and was general editor of Comics You Must Read Before You Die. He is co-director of Comica, the London International Comics Festival.

Related / Latest Publication:

Posy Simmonds (Thames & Hudson, 2019).

Roland Glasser translates literary and genre fiction from French, as well as art, travel and assorted nonfiction. His translation of Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s Tram 83 won the Etisalat Prize for Literature 2016 and was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize and the Best Translated Book Award. He is a French Voices and PEN Translates Award winner, serves on the committee of the UK Translators Association, and is a co-founder of The Starling Bureau—a translators’ collective.

Related / Latest Publications:

	Adeline Dieudonné, Real Life, translated by Roland Glasser, (World Editions, 2020).
	Tram 83, translated by Roland Glasser (Jacaranda, 2015)

© Sarah McKenna-Ayres

Jonathan Gibbs is a writer and critic based in London. He has published two novels, The Large Door (Boiler House Press, 2019) and Randall (Galley Beggar, 2014), and has written for publications including The Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement and the Brixton Review of Books. He has judged the Galley Beggar Short Story Prize and the Manchester Fiction Prize, and is Programme Director for Creative Writing at St Mary's University, Twickenham. He curates the digital short story project A Personal Anthology.

Related / Latest Publication:

The Large Door (Boiler House Press, 2019).

A Fine Arts graduate, Sébastien Vassant worked in a bookshop and as an independent publisher before starting his career as a comics illustrator in 2006. Mainly published by Futuropolis, he wrote numerous books both loved by critics and fans alike. His work includes a number of graphic novels (Les heures passées à contempler la mère) as well as non-fiction comic books dealing mainly with French politics and history (Mai 68: la veille du grand soir ; Histoire dessinée de la Guerre d'Algérie). He also regularly contributes to the French magazine La revue Dessinée and is co-director of the Maison Fumetti, a cultural institution dedicated to comic books and illustration in Nantes, where he now lives.

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Related / Latest Publications:

	Les heures passées à contempler la mère (Futuropolis, 2019)
	Mai 68: la veille du grand soir (Seuil Delcourt, 2018)
	Histoire dessinée de la Guerre d'Algérie (Seuil, 2016)

Nii Ayikwei Parkes is a writer, editor, socio-cultural commentator and performance poet. He holds an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck (University of London) and is a 2007 recipient of Ghana's national ACRAG award for poetry and literary advocacy. Nii's debut novel Tail of the Blue Bird was shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Prize and his work has been translated into Italian, French, Chinese, Dutch, German and Arabic. His latest books of poetry are the Michael Marks Award-shortlisted pamphlet, Ballast: a remix (2009) and The Makings of You (Peepal Tree Press).

Related / Latest Publication:

The Death of Comrade President, translated by Helen Stevenson (Serpent’s Tail, 2020)

Pianist and improviser, Karol Beffa is a composer whose works have been performed in France Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Russia, the United States and Japan by such well-known ensembles as A Sei Voci, Maîtrise de Radio France, Cambridge Voices. As composer-in-residence of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse (2006-09), Karol Beffa wrote Paradis artificiels (2007), a Violin Concerto, premiered by Renaud Capuçon (2008), and a Piano Concerto, first performed by Boris Berezovsky (2009). In addition, he has composed two incidental scores as well as the music for 15 films.