Tanella Suzanne Boni (born 1954) is an Ivorian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

. Also an academic, she is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Abidjan. Apart from her teaching and research activities, she was the President of the association of writers of the Côte d'Ivoire from 1991 to 1997, and later the organizer of the International Poetry Festival in Abidjan from 1998 to 2002.

Biography

Tanella Boni was born in

Abidjan Abidjan ( , ; N'Ko script, N'ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the largest city and the former capital of Ivory Coast. As of the Demographics of Ivory Coast, 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of the overall population ...

, Côte d'Ivoire, where she was educated to high-school level, before going on to further university studies in

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

, France, and at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

, obtaining a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

. She subsequently became Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cocody-Abidjan (now the University of Félix Houphouët-Boigny), as well as writing poetry, novels,

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

criticism Criticism is the construction of a judgement about the negative or positive qualities of someone or something. Criticism can range from impromptu comments to a written detailed response. , ''the act of giving your opinion or judgment about the ...

, and

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

. She served as President of the Writers' Association of Côte d'Ivoire from 1991 to 1997 and organized Abidjan's International Poetry Festival from 1998 to 2002."Tanella Boni (Côte d'Ivoire)"

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

. During the political strife in Côte d'Ivoire (from 2002 until 2011) she self-exiled to France.Tanella Boni biography
''Europe Now'', Council for European Studies, 1 March 2018. In 2005, she received the Ahmadou Kourouma Prize for her novel ''Matins de couvre-feu'' (Mornings after curfew). In 2009, she won the Antonio Viccaro International Poetry Prize. Since 2013, Boni divides her time between Abidjan and Paris. She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology '' New Daughters of Africa'', edited by

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's then youngest publisher as well as the first black female book p ...

Bibliography

* ''Labyrinthe'' (poems), Editions Akpagnon, Lomé 1984 * ''Une vie de crabe'' (novel), Dakar: Nouvelles Editions Africaines du Sénégal, 1990 * ''De l'autre côté du soleil'' (children's story), Paris: NEA-EDICEF, 1991 * ''La fugue d'Ozone'' (children's story), Paris: NEA-EDICEF, 1992 * ''Grains de sable'' (poems), Limoges: Le bruit des autres, 1993 * ''Les baigneurs du Lac rose'' (novel), Abidjan: Nouvelles Editions Ivoiriennes, 1995; Paris: Editions du Serpent à Plumes, 2002 * ''Il n'y a pas de parole heureuse'' (poems), Limoges: Le bruit des autres, 1997 * ''L'atelier des génies'' (children's story), Paris: Acoria, 2001 * ''Chaque jour l'espérance'' (poems), Paris: L'Harmattan, 2002 * ''Ma peau est fenêtre d'avenir'' (poems), La Rochelle: Rumeur des Ages, 2004 * ''Gorée île baobab'' (poems), Limoges & Ecrits des forges, Trois-Rivières (Québec), 2004 * ''Matins de couvre-feu'' (novel), Paris: Editions du Serpent à plumes, 2005 * ''Que vivent les femmes d'Afrique'' (essay), Paris: Editions Panama, 2008, * ''Les nègres n’iront jamais au paradis'' (novel), Paris: Editions du Serpent à Plumes, 2006 * ''Le Rêve du dromadaire'' (poems, illustrated by Muriel Diallo), Cotonou: Ruisseaux d’Afrique, 2009 * ''Myriam Makeba : une voix pour la liberté'' (biography), Paris: Éditions À dos d'âne, 2009 * ''Jusqu’au souvenir de ton visage'' (poems), Paris: Alfabarre, 2010 * ''L’avenir a rendez-vous avec l’aube'' (poems), Vents d’ailleurs, Festival de La Roque-d'Anthéron, 2011, . Translated into English by Todd Fredson as ''The Future Has an Appointment with the Dawn'', with an Introduction by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, University of Nebraska Press, 2018, * ''Toute d’étincelles vêtue'' (poems), La Roque-d’Anthéron: Vents d’ailleurs, 2014 * ''Là où il fait si clair en moi'' (poems), Paris: Éditions Bruno Doucey, 2017

Awards

* 2005: Ahmadou Kourouma Prize for ''Matins de couvre-feu'' * 2009: Antonio Vicarro International Poetry Prize

References

External links

Tanella Boni official website

(in French)

(in English)
Two poems by Boni in English (translated by Patrick Williamson)
Poetry in Translation.
"Nine Poems by Tanella Boni"
translated by Todd Fredson, ''Europe Now'', Council for European Studies. {{DEFAULTSORT:Boni, Tanella 1954 births 20th-century poets 20th-century short story writers 20th-century women writers Ivorian poets Ivorian short story writers Ivorian women novelists Ivorian women poets Ivorian women short story writers Ivorian women writers Living people People from Abidjan Academic staff of Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny Ivorian novelists