Senegalese writer Andrée-Marie Diagne Bonané is the winner of the Goethe-Institut & Sylt Foundation African Writer´s Residency Award (AWRA) 2017.
The Goethe-Institut & Sylt Foundation African Writer´s Residency Award (AWRA) provides a two months stay in a subsidized apartment to writers of contemporary African literature, who engage with current themes and concerns related to Africa and the African diaspora. The award is open to published writers of poetry, prose, plays and novels. Previous recipients of this award include Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (2016), Mildred Barya (2015), and Nii Ayikwei Parkes (2014).
The Sylt Foundation is located on the island of Sylt off the coast of Hamburg in Germany. Its residency programme has been running for several years and offers opportunities to South African as well as international visual artists, writers, composers and film makers. The programme is managed under the directorship of literary scholar and curator Indra Wussow. Since 2016 the award is presented in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The winner of the 2017 edition was announced on August 2, and the fellowship recipient is Senegalese writer Andrée-Marie Diagne Bonané. The Burkina Faso born writer who lives in Dakar in Senegal has the Harmattan Senegal published her short-story collection La Fileuse d’Amour to her name. She is currently working on a novel titled La Servant au Grand Corps (The Grand Servant Corps).
On being selected for the award she said, “I am so glad to know you selected me for this African Writers’ Residency Award. I promise to use this opportunity to improve my writer career and I say Thank you very much to all the staff.“
The writer who features a lot promoting literary activities on radio and TV in Senegal will take up at the residency at the Sylt Foundation´s headquarters in 2018.
Congratulations and good luck Ms Bonané.
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