Rania Ali Musa Mamoun () is a Sudanese

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...

writer and journalist, known for her novels, poems and short stories. She was born in the city of Wad Medani in east-central Sudan and was educated at the University of Gezira.

Early life

Rania Ali Musa Mamoun was born in 1979 in Wad Medani, a city in east-central

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 ...

. She pursued higher education at the University of Gezira, where she developed her interest in literature and writing.

Career and literary achievements

As a journalist, she has been active in both print media and television. In particular, she has edited the culture page of the journal ''al-Thaqafi'', has written a column for the newspaper ''al-Adwaa'' and presented a cultural programme on

Gezira State Gezira (), also spelt Al Jazirah, Al Jazeera and Al Jazira, is one of the 18 states of Sudan. The state lies between the Blue Nile and the White Nile in the east-central region of the country. The state has a population of 5,096,920 as of 2018, ...

TV. As a literary author, Mamoun has published two novels 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 ...

, ''Green Flash'' (2006) and ''Son of the Sun'' (2013), as well as a short story collection ''Thirteen Months of Sunrise'', which was translated into English by Elisabeth Jaquette. Her main characters in ''Green Flash'' are Ahmad and Nur, two Sudanese students in Cairo who are suffering from

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

and injustice. According to literary critic Xavier Luffin, their discussions deal with themes worrying "their generation, such as the lack of freedom, the civil war, identity, racism, and unemployment." Several of Mamoun's stories have appeared in English translation, for example in the

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 ...

''The Book of Khartoum'' (Comma Press, 2016) and ''Banthology'' (Comma Press, 2018), as well as in

Banipal ''Banipal'' is an independent literary magazine dedicated to the promotion of contemporary Arab literature through translations in English. It was founded in London in 1998 by Margaret Obank and Samuel Shimon. The magazine is published three ti ...

magazine. The French anthology ''Nouvelles du Soudan'' (2010) included her story ''Histoires de portes'' ''(Stories of Doors)''. In 2009, Mamoun was the recipient of an AFAC ( Arab Fund for Arts and Culture) grant, and the following year, she was selected to participate in the second IPAF Nadwa, an annual workshop for young writers of

Arabic literature Arabic literature ( / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is ''Adab (Islam), Adab'', which comes from a meaning of etiquett ...

. In his 2019 article about the ''Top 10 Books about Sudan'' in

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

, Sudanese-born writer Jamal Mahjoub characterised Mamoun's stories about everyday life in modern Khartoum as "prone to experimentation". Commenting on Mamoun's 2023 collection of poems ''Something Evergreen Called Life'', translated by British-Syrian writer

Yasmine Seale Yasmine Seale is a British-Syrian writer and literary translator who works in English, Arabic, and French. Her translated works include ''The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1001 Nights'' and ''Aladdin: A New Translation''. She is the first w ...

, poet Divya Victor wrote: ''Something Evergreen Called Life'' was selected by

Brittle paper ''Brittle Paper'' is an online literary magazine styled as an "African literary blog" published weekly in the English language. Its focus is on "build(ing) a vibrant African literary scene." It was founded by Ainehi Edoro (at the time a doctora ...

literary magazine as one of the 100 Notable African Books of 2023.

Works

* ''Green Flash'', 2006 * ''Son of the Sun'', 2013 * ''Thirteen Months of Sunrise,'' short stories, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette, 2019' * ''Something Evergreen Called Life,'' poems, translated by

, 2023

References

External links

Rania Mamoun
at

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Rania Mamoun's short story "Doors”
translated by Elisabeth Jaquette {{DEFAULTSORT:Mamoun, Rania 1979 births Sudanese journalists Sudanese women journalists Sudanese novelists Sudanese women novelists Sudanese poets Sudanese women poets Sudanese women short story writers Sudanese short story writers Living people 21st-century Sudanese writers 21st-century women writers Sudanese women writers 21st-century Sudanese women 21st-century journalists 21st-century women journalists 21st-century poets 21st-century novelists 21st-century short story writers

Early life

Career and literary achievements

Works

See also

References

Further reading

External links