SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Fatou Diome is a Franco-Senegalese writer whose work explores issues of migration, identity, exile, social exclusion, and the historical and cultural ties between Senegal and France.
Born in 1968 in Niodior, a small island in Senegal, she spent her childhood there, raised by her grandparents. After completing secondary school, she pursued her university studies in Dakar. In the 1990s, she moved to France, where she obtained a PhD in literature at the University of Strasbourg while supporting herself through various jobs and beginning her career as a writer.
She is widely known for her novel Le Ventre de l’Atlantique, which brought her international recognition. Drawing on both African oral traditions and contemporary narrative forms, Diome’s writing combines humour, irony, and social critique to portray the experiences of migrants and the tensions between aspirations for mobility and the realities of life in Europe.
Selected honours and awards:
- 2019 — Prix littéraire des Rotary Clubs de langue française, for Les Veilleurs de Sangomar
- 2009 — Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France)
- 2005 — LiBeraturpreis (Frankfurt), for Le Ventre de l’Atlantique
- 2005 — Preis der jungen Leser (Austria), for Le Ventre de l’Atlantique
- 2004 — Prix des lecteurs de Loire-Atlantique, for Le Ventre de l’Atlantique
- 2003 — Prix des Hémisphères Chantal Lapicque, for Le Ventre de l’Atlantique
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Diome, Fatou. Celles qui attendent. Flammarion, 2010.
—. Impossible de grandir. Flammarion, 2013.
—. Kétala. Flammarion, 2006.
—. La Préférence nationale. Présence Africaine, 2001.
—. Le Ventre de l’Atlantique. Anne Carrière, 2003.
—. Les Veilleurs de Sangomar. Albin Michel, 2019.
—. Marianne porte plainte!. Flammarion, 2017.
—. Mauve. Flammarion, 2010.
—. The Belly of the Atlantic. Translated by Lulu Norman and Ros Schwartz, Serpent’s Tail, 2006.
