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
Website
www.ayeshaattah.com

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 (2019), 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 a Miles Morland Foundation Writing Scholarship in 2016 for a proposed non-fiction book on the history of the kola nut.[17]

Harmattan Rain (2008)

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 (2015)

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]

The Hundred Wells of Salaga (2019)

Aminah lives an idyllic life until she is brutally separated from her home and forced on a journey that transforms her from a daydreamer into a resilient woman. Wurche, the willful daughter of a chief, is desperate to play an important role in her father’s court. These two women’s lives converge as infighting among Wurche's people threatens the region, during the height of the slave trade at the end of the nineteenth century.

Through the experiences of Aminah and Wurche, The Hundred Wells of Salaga offers a remarkable view of slavery and how the scramble for Africa affected the lives of everyday people.

The Deep Blue Between (2020)

Twin sisters Hassana and Husseina’s home is in ruins after a brutal raid. But this is not the end but the beginning of their story, one that will take them to unfamiliar cities and cultures, where they will forge new families, ward off dangers and truly begin to know themselves. As the twins pursue separate paths in Brazil and the Gold Coast of West Africa, they remain connected through shared dreams of water. But will their fates ever draw them back together? A sweeping adventure with richly evocative historical settings, The Deep Blue Between is a moving story of the bonds that can endure even the most dramatic change.

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
  • The Deep Blue Between. London: Pushkin Press, 2020. ISBN 9781782692669

Essays

Other writing

References
  1. Lee, A. C. (14 November 2013). "Young African Writers Hold Forth in Brooklyn". The 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 31 July 2016 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 27 April 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  7. "Alumni Bookshelf". Columbia Alumni Association. Archived from the original on 7 August 2016.
  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 Harruna (9 April 2018). "Cheikh Anta Diop – An Awakening". Chimurenga.
  23. Attah, Ayesha Harruna (10 November 2018). "Opinion: Slow-Cooking History". The New York Times.
  24. Attah, Ayesha Harruna (21 February 2019). "Inside Ghana: A Tale of Love, Loss and Slavery". Newsweek.
  25. Attah, Ayesha (3 October 2007). "Second Home, Plus Yacht". Yachting Magazine.
  26. Attah, Ayesha (2013). "Incident on the way to the Bakoy Market". Asymptote Magazine.
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