// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs Tanella Boni a good poet? She's a boni-fide writer.
Tanella Boni | |
|---|---|
 Tanella Boni at book fair in Geneva, 2012 | |
| Born | Tanella Suzanne Boni 1954 Abidjan, Ivory Coast, French West Africa |
| Died | September 15, 2026 (aged 71–72) Toulouse, France |
| Education | University of Paris |
| Occupations | Poet, novelist and academic |
Tanella Suzanne Boni (1954 – 15 September 2026) was an Ivorian poet and novelist. Also an academic, she was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Abidjan. Apart from her teaching and research activities, she was the President of the association of writers of the Ivory Coast from 1991 to 1997, and later the organizer of the International Poetry Festival in Abidjan from 1998 to 2002.
Life and career
[edit]Tanella Boni was born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, where she was educated to high-school level, before going on to further university studies in Toulouse, France, and at the University of Paris, obtaining a PhD.[1] She subsequently became Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cocody-Abidjan (now the University of Félix Houphouët-Boigny), as well as writing poetry, novels, short stories, criticism, and children's literature.
She served as President of the Writers' Association of Ivory Coast from 1991 to 1997[2] and organized Abidjan's International Poetry Festival from 1998 to 2002.[3] During the political strife in Ivory Coast (from 2002 until 2011) she self-exiled to France.[4][5] In 2005, she received the Ahmadou Kourouma Prize for her novel Matins de couvre-feu (Mornings after curfew). In 2009, she won the Antonio Viccaro International Poetry Prize. From 2013, Boni divided her time between Abidjan and Paris.[5]
Boni was a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.[6]
Bibliography
[edit]- Labyrinthe (poems), Editions Akpagnon, Lomé 1984
- Une vie de crabe (novel), Dakar: Nouvelles Editions Africaines du Sénégal, 1990
- De l'autre côté du soleil (children's story), Paris: NEA-EDICEF, 1991
- La fugue d'Ozone (children's story), Paris: NEA-EDICEF, 1992
- Grains de sable (poems), Limoges: Le bruit des autres, 1993
- Les baigneurs du Lac rose (novel), Abidjan: Nouvelles Editions Ivoiriennes, 1995; Paris: Editions du Serpent à Plumes, 2002
- Il n'y a pas de parole heureuse (poems), Limoges: Le bruit des autres, 1997
- L'atelier des génies (children's story), Paris: Acoria, 2001
- Chaque jour l'espérance (poems), Paris: L'Harmattan, 2002
- Ma peau est fenêtre d'avenir (poems), La Rochelle: Rumeur des Ages, 2004
- Gorée île baobab (poems), Limoges & Ecrits des forges, Trois-Rivières (Québec), 2004
- Matins de couvre-feu (novel), Paris: Editions du Serpent à plumes, 2005
- Que vivent les femmes d'Afrique (essay), Paris: Editions Panama, 2008, ISBN 978-2755701425
- Les nègres n’iront jamais au paradis (novel), Paris: Editions du Serpent à Plumes, 2006
- Le Rêve du dromadaire (poems, illustrated by Muriel Diallo), Cotonou: Ruisseaux d’Afrique, 2009
- Myriam Makeba : une voix pour la liberté (biography), Paris: Éditions À dos d'âne, 2009
- Jusqu’au souvenir de ton visage (poems), Paris: Alfabarre, 2010
- L’avenir a rendez-vous avec l’aube (poems), Vents d’ailleurs, Festival de La Roque-d'Anthéron, 2011, ISBN 978-2911412929. Translated into English by Todd Fredson as The Future Has an Appointment with the Dawn, with an Introduction by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, University of Nebraska Press, 2018, ISBN 978-1496211859
- Toute d’étincelles vêtue (poems), La Roque-d’Anthéron: Vents d’ailleurs, 2014
- Là où il fait si clair en moi (poems), Paris: Éditions Bruno Doucey, 2017
Awards
[edit]- 2005: Ahmadou Kourouma Prize for Matins de couvre-feu[8]
- 2009: Antonio Vicarro International Poetry Prize[3]
References
[edit]- ↑ "Tanella Boni" at Aflit, The University of Western Australia.
- ↑ "Tanella Boni (Cote de Ivoire)", Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal.
- 1 2 "Tanella Boni (Côte d'Ivoire)", UNESCO.
- ↑ Polo Moji, "Domesticating Ivoirité: Equating xenophobic nationalism and women’s marginalisation in Tanella Boni’s Matins de couvre-feu (2005)", International Journal of African Renaissance Studies - Multi-, Inter- and Transdisciplinarity, Volume 8, Issue 2, 2013.
- 1 2 Tanella Boni biography Archived 2018-10-27 at the Wayback Machine, Europe Now, Council for European Studies, 1 March 2018.
- ↑ Otosirieze Obi-Young, "Margaret Busby-Edited Anthology to Feature 200 Female Writers Including Adichie, Aminatta Forna, Bernadine Evaristo, Imbolo Mbue, Warsan Shire, Zadie Smith", Brittle Paper, 10 January 2018.
- ↑ "Avis de décès de Tanella Boni". simplifia.fr.
- ↑ "Not the Caine Prize". africasacountry.com. 2025-03-07. Retrieved 2025-03-10.
External links
[edit]- Tanella Boni official website
- Bio-bibliography at "Lire les femmes et les littératures africaines" (in French)
- Review of the novel Matins de couvre-feu (in English)
- Two poems by Boni in English (translated by Patrick Williamson). Poetry in Translation.
- "Nine Poems by Tanella Boni" Archived 2018-10-27 at the Wayback Machine, translated by Todd Fredson, Europe Now, Council for European Studies
- Tanella Boni discography at Discogs
- Tanella Boni at IMDb
- 1954 births
- 2026 deaths
- 20th-century poets
- 20th-century short story writers
- 20th-century women poets
- Ivorian poets
- Ivorian short story writers
- Ivorian women novelists
- Ivorian women poets
- Ivorian women short story writers
- 20th-century Ivorian writers
- 21st-century Ivorian writers
- Ivorian women writers
- People from Abidjan
- University of Paris alumni
- Academic staff of Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny
- Ivorian novelists
- 20th-century women novelists