Monica Arac de Nyeko

Caine Prize Writer in Residence
October 22 - November 15, 2007

Winner of the 2007 Caine Prize for “Jambula Tree,” Monica Arac de Nyeko was also short-listed for the prize in 2004 for “Strange Fruit.” She sees herself as part of the new generation of African writers seeking an imperative voice in Africa today: “It is my Uganda, my land, Africa, my world, my universe, too after all and it will be for my children.”

http://www.caineprize.com/

Courttia Newland

British Council (USA) Writer in Residence 2007

Courttia Newland was born in 1973 in Hammersmith, west London, where his highly acclaimed first novel, The Scholar (1998), is set. His second book, Society Within (1999), is a collection of short stories about young black Londoners. In his latest novel, Snakeskin (2002), a black politician is shocked by the police investigation into the murder of his daughter. He is the editor of IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain (2000). His plays include the acclaimed The Far Side, about the murder of a young black man by a white youth, and Mother's Day, premiered at the Lyric Studio Hammersmith in autumn 2002. He is Writer in Residence at The Post Office Theatre in West London and is currently writing the screenplay to a film adaptation of The Scholar.

Dinaw Mengestu

Lannan Visiting Writer, Spring 2007

Dinaw Mengestu was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1978. In 1980 he immigrated to the United States with his mother and sister, joining his father, who had fled the communist revolution in Ethiopia two years before. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and of Columbia University's MFA program in fiction. He is the recipient of a 2006 fellowship in fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts. His first novel, The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears, will be published this March by Penguin Riverhead. He has also recently reported stories for Harper's and Jane magazine, profiling a young woman who was kidnapped and forced to become a soldier in the brutal war in Uganda, and for Rolling Stone on the tragedy in Darfur. The Lannan Visiting Writer at Georgetown University for spring 2007, Mengestu lives in New York City.

Diran Adebayo

British Council (USA) Writer in Residence 2006

Diran Adebayo's magical ride onto the literary A-list began with the release of his first novel, Some Kind of Black, winner of the prestigious Betty Trask Award. His second novel, My Once Upon a Time, moved the Daily Telegraph to declare: "This is a book that sings...by turns rhapsodic, exhilerating and poignant." Adebayo's residency is co-sponsored by the Program in African-American Studies and the Humanities Initiative.

Derek Walcott

Distinuished Writer in Residence 2005

The 1992 Nobel Laureate and prodigal of the English language continues to astonish in his 75th year. Adding to a recently issued collection of plays, The Haitian Trilogy, his essays, What the Twilight Said, and interviews, Conversations with Derek Walcott, the author published a new book of poems last year, The Prodigal. A MacArthur Fellowship and the Queen's Medal for poetry are among his many honors. He lives in St. Lucia and New York.

Donna Hemans

Visiting Writer 2004-2005

Bio forthcoming...