Bushra Elfadil, also spelled Bushra al-Fadil (, born 1952 in Araggi,

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

) is a Sudanese writer. He has published several collections of short stories and novels in Arabic, with some of his stories translated into English, including

anthologies In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...

of contemporary fiction from Sudan. In 2017, he was awarded the

Caine Prize for African Writing The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, published in the English language. Founded in the United Kingdom in 2000, the £10,000 prize was named ...

Career

Elfadil was born in 1952 in the village of Araggi in the Northern State of Sudan."Bushra el-Fadil"
''Banipal'', No. 56, Generation '56 (Summer 2016). Later, he moved with his family to the village of Wad El-Bor in the state of Al Jazirah in central Sudan, where he received his primary education. He studied in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

and received his PhD in

Russian language Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

. When he returned to Sudan, he was appointed as lecturer in the department for Russian language in the Faculty of Arts at

Khartoum University The University of Khartoum (U of K) () is a public university located in Khartoum, Sudan. It is the largest and oldest university in Sudan. UofK was founded as Gordon Memorial College in 1902 and established in 1956 when Sudan gained independence ...

. After protests against the military government of

Omar al-Bashir Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir (born 1 January 1944) is a Sudanese former military officer and politician who served as Head of state of Sudan, Sudan's head of state under various titles from 1989 until 2019, when he was deposed in 2019 Sudanese c ...

in the early 1990s, he was expelled from that university, along with other lecturers and hundreds of students.

Personal life

Elfadil has a daughter and four sons. Two of them, Basil and Bahir pursue careers as medical doctors. In 2018, he emigrated to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

in Canada, and currently lives there.

Recognition

In 2012, he was awarded the El-

Tayeb Salih Tayeb Salih (; 12 July 1929 – 18 February 2009) was a Sudanese writer, novelist, cultural journalist for the BBC Arabic programme as well as for Arabic journals, and a staff member of UNESCO. He is best known for his novel ''Season of Migration ...

Prize for Creative Writing in Arabic by the Sudanese ministry of culture. Further, he was the first writer in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

to win the Caine Prize for African Fiction in 2017 with "The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away", published in ''The Book of Khartoum - A City in Short Fiction''. In a review, this story was characterised as follows: "...the winning story is one that explores through metaphor and an altered, inventive mode of perception – including, for the first time in the Caine Prize, illustration – the allure of, and relentless threats to freedom." In 2016, his story "Two spaces objects over Bandar" was published in ''Literary Sudans: An Anthology of Literature from Sudan and South Sudan.''

Works

Elfadil has published several collections of short stories and novels in Arabic: *''Hikkayat al-bint allati tarrat asafiraha'' (The story of the girl whose birds flew away) - short story *''Azrraq Alyamama'' *''Al-hossan al-tayer'' (The Flying Horse), a collection of children's stories *''Gassied fil zil'' (Poems in the shadow) *''Above a City’s Sky'' (2012)

References

External links

The Opening Ceremony
- short story by Bushra Elfadil, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette
The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away
- short story by Bushra Elfadil, translated by Max Shmookler
Phosphorus at the Bottom of a Well
- short story by Bushra Elfadil, translated by Mustafa Adam
Generation '56
''Banipal'' 56 (Summer 2016)] {{DEFAULTSORT:Elfadil, Bushra 1952 births Caine Prize winners Living people Sudanese male short story writers Sudanese short story writers