Free Artist Talk - Hawa Jande Golakai

To book: email AbbeyLearning@torbay.gov.uk
Tickets are free but booking is required.

2pm - 3.30pm

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Hawa Jande Golakai spent a vibrant childhood in Liberia. After the civil war in 1990 she bounced around the continent. Having lived in several countries, she considers herself a modern-day nomad and cultural sponge. Her 2011 debut The Lazarus Effect was thrice nominated and she is a laureate of the Africa39 Project, celebrating 39 of the most promising contemporary authors under the age of 40 on the continent.

In addition to her second novel The Score, she has featured for the BBC, Brittle Paper, Books LIVE SA, The Guardian UK, Commonwealth Anthology, Ankara Press, The Elephant and others. She is the winner of the 2017 Brittle Paper award for her creative non-fiction essay Fugee. She is also a medical immunologist and with her son, lives between Monrovia and anywhere else she finds herself.

As part of this short residency in Torbay, Hawa Jande Golakai will be meeting with the young performers and artists of Torbay’s Doorstep Arts and Plymouth’s Beyond Face on the development of a new writing project inspired from one of her essays, Zombieland. The piece will be presented as part of the Agatha Christie Birthday Celebration weekend on Sat 15th September at the Palace Theatre, Paignton.

At 2pm, Friday 24th August, Hawa Jande Golakai will be in conversation at Torre Abbey Museum reading and discussing her work. Free event, booking required.

Read Hawa’s award-winning essay Fugee published by Granta (2016).

Read The Guardian interview with Hawa Jande Golakai discussing her first crime novel, The Lazarus Effect (2011).

This residency has been organised in association with Edinburgh International Book Festival and with the support of the Colwinston Charitable Trust.