Sept 29, 2024: Literary Sudans
Sudan Syllabus 2
Featuring Stella Gaitano, Reem Gaafar and Mayada Ibrahim.
Stella Gaitano was born in Khartoum in 1979 into a South Sudanese family. She studied English and Arabic at Khartoum University and trained as a pharmacist. When the Sudan was partitioned, she moved to Juba, the capital of South Sudan in 2012. In 2015 Gaitano had to move back to Khartoum, after having been harassed and attacked due to her criticism of the South Sudanese government for what she saw as its mismanagement, corruption, and its role in the South Sudanese civil war. In 2022 Gaitano was awarded a fellowship by the PEN International Writers-in-Exile programme and moved to Germany She has chosen to write in Arabic and has published 2 short story collections and the novel Edo’s Souls in 2018. Edo's Souls is the first book from South Sudan to be translated into English.
Reem Gaafar is a Sudanese public health physician, researcher, writer and mother of three boys. She is published in both fiction and non-fiction circles, contributing to issues on public health and policy, society, racism and women’s rights. Her work has appeared in African Arguments, 500 Words Magazine, Teakisi Magazine, African Feminism, Andariya Magazine, International Health Policies and Health Systems Global. Her short story Light of the Desert was published in the anthology I Know Two Sudans (Gipping Press, UK). Her second short short Finding Descartes was published in the anthology Relations: African and Diaspora Voices (HarperVia). Her debut novel A Mouth Full of Salt is published by Saqi Books in the UK and US, and Invisible Publishing in Canada.
Mayada Ibrahim is Managing Editor at Tilted Axis. She is based in Queens, New York, and has roots in Khartoum and London. As a literary translator, she works between Arabic and English. Her translations have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and published by University of Nebraska Press, Willows House, Archipelago Books, Dolce Stil Criollo, and 128 Lit. She is the co-translator of Samahani, a novel by Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin which was the Winner of the 2024 PEN Translates Award.