Suzanne Dracius closed out Sunday at Afrolit Sans Frontières Season 4 from Fort-de-France, Martinique on July 5, 2020. She was hosted by Manuel Allamellou.
Afrolit Sans Frontières, a virtual literary festival for writers of African origin, was founded by author and publisher Zukiswa Wanner as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic international lockdowns. The festival format is two sessions a day on Instagram Live with an artist moderated by a host who also fields questions from audience members. There have been three editions so far; Season 1 from March 23-30, Season 2 from April 20-27, and Season 3 from May 25 – June 1.
Season 4, which started on June 29, has so far seen Ngwatilo Mawiyoo in Nairobi, Kenya, Hannibal Tabu in Los Angeles, USA, Lamelle Shaw in Johannesburg, South Africa, Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún in Lagos, Nigeria, Irenosen Okojie in London, UK, Koleka Putuma in Cape Town, South Africa, Natalia Molebatsi in Johannesburg, South Africa, Iquo DianaAbasi in Lagos, Nigeria, Mélio Tinga in Maputo, Mozambique, Raoul Djimeli in Yaounde, Cameroon, and Lu Ain-Zaila in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Sunday, July 5, the penultimate day of the festival, kicked off with Mel Matsinhe in Maputo, Mozambique followed by Marc Alexandre Oho Bambe in Lille, France. The day’s proceedings were wrapped up by Suzanne Dracius in Fort-de-France, Martinique. Suzanne Dracius is an author, playwright, and former professor of Classics graduate of the Sorbonne, both in France and also at the Université Antilles-Guyane. She has written the novel, L’autre Qui Danse (1989) a finalist for the Prix du Premier Roman (Seghers ; Editions du Rocher 2007). In the intervening years, Dracius has written two short stories that have been anthologized in American classroom collections of literature in French from beyond l’Hexagone , La Montagne de Feu and La Virago(Diversité, publisher : Houghton-Mifflin, Boston). Her stories have been published in Rue Monte au Ciel, Coup de coeur FNAC (Desnel Press, Fort-de-France, Martinique, 2003; English translation by James Davis Climb to the Sky, UVA Press, USA, 2012). She published Lumina Sophie dite Surprise (2005) the play which won the Médaille d’Honneur de Schoelcher. Dracius published her first collection of poems, Exquise Déréliction Métisse (Desnel; 2008), which won the Prix Fetkann.
You can watch the discussions between Suzanne Dracius and her host Manuel Allamellou on the below video. Please note that the video is principally in French.
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