Aminatta Forna facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Aminatta Forna OBE
Forna in Frankfurt am Main, 2008
Born	20 December 1965 Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Scotland
Occupation	Author, academic, commentator
Alma mater	University College London
Notable works	The Devil That Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Quest (2003); Ancestor Stones (2006); The Memory of Love (2010); The Hired Man (2013); Happiness (2017); The Window Seat (2021)
Notable awards	Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book Award 2011; 2014 Windham–Campbell Literature Prize (Fiction)
Spouse	Simon Westcott

Aminatta Forna is a British writer. She has both Scottish and Sierra Leonean family roots. Her first book, The Devil That Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Quest (2002), was a true story about her life.

Since then, she has written four novels. These include Ancestor Stones (2006) and The Memory of Love (2010). She also wrote The Hired Man (2013) and Happiness (2018). In 2021, she published The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion. This book was a collection of essays, a new type of writing for her.

Aminatta Forna has received many awards for her work. Her novel The Memory of Love won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for "Best Book" in 2011. It was also considered for the Orange Prize for Fiction.

She is a Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. She also taught at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Since 2012, she has been a director at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

In 2014, Forna won the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for fiction. This is a very important award. In 2017, she was given the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her contributions to literature.

Forna is a member of the Royal Society of Literature. She helps choose winners for important book awards. She also supports new writers from different backgrounds.

In 2019, her novel Happiness was considered for the European Literature Prize. It was also shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) Ondaatje Prize and the Jhalak Prize.

About Aminatta Forna

Aminatta Forna was born around 1965 in Bellshill, Scotland. This town is near Glasgow. She was the third child of her parents. Her father, Mohamed Sorie Forna, was from Sierra Leone. He was a doctor who trained in Scotland. Her mother, Maureen Christison, was Scottish.

When Aminatta was six months old, her family moved to Sierra Leone. Her father worked there as a doctor and a government minister. As a child, Aminatta lived in many different homes. She also spent time in Iran, Thailand, and Zambia. Her parents later divorced. Her mother moved back to the UK.

After her father gained custody, the children returned to Sierra Leone with him. They did not see their mother very often.

Her father became more involved in politics after Sierra Leone became independent in 1961. He served as finance minister. He worked to help developing countries. He later resigned because he was worried about political violence and corruption. But tensions grew, and he was arrested. He was in prison from 1970 to 1973. Amnesty International called him a "Prisoner of Conscience". In 1975, her father was executed. He was accused of treason.

Dr. Forna had remarried in Sierra Leone. The children called their stepmother "Auntie Yabome". When Dr. Forna was in danger, Yabome helped the children escape to England. She made a new life for them there. Aminatta was ten years old when her father died. She finished school in England. She then studied law at University College London.

Early Career and Work

From 1989 to 1999, Aminatta Forna worked for the BBC. She worked in both radio and television. She was a reporter and made documentaries about arts and politics. She is well known for her documentaries about Africa. These include Through African Eyes (1995) and Africa Unmasked (2002). She also made The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu (2009) for the BBC.

In 2013, she became a Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

Forna is on the board of the Royal National Theatre. She was also a judge for the Man Booker International Prize in 2013.

She started The Rogbonko Village Project. This charity built a school in a village in Sierra Leone.

Aminatta Forna is married to Simon Westcott, who designs furniture. In 2013, they lived in south-east London.

In 2021, she published a collection of essays. She said that her time at Georgetown University encouraged her. There was a lot of interest in essays in the United States.

Aminatta Forna's Writing Style

Aminatta Forna's books, both fiction and non-fiction, often explore big ideas. She writes about what happens before and after wars. She also writes about memory. She looks at how personal stories can be different from official history. Her work shows how small acts of betrayal can lead to terrible events. In her novels, she often uses many different voices and changes the timeline.

The Devil that Danced on the Water

The Devil that Danced on the Water (2002) was Aminatta Forna's first book. It was highly praised in the UK and the US. It was also broadcast on BBC Radio. The book was a runner-up for the UK's Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.

Forna went back to Sierra Leone to try to clear her father's name. With help from her stepmother, she learned more about the events around her father's death. She interviewed many people who had spoken against him. Her childhood and this investigation are what her memoir is about.

These experiences led her to write about the effects of trauma in her later novels. Her memoir shows her sadness and anger about her father's arrest and execution.

She wrote that it felt like she had always known about the lies and corruption. She said, "So this is innocence lost, what it feels like. The country had changed, I had changed - as for the past, it was irrevocably altered."

Ancestor Stones

Ancestor Stones was Forna's second book and her first novel. It won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in the US. It also won the LiBeraturpreis in Germany. The book was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award.

The Washington Post chose Ancestor Stones as one of the most important books of 2006. In 2007, Vanity Fair magazine named Forna one of Africa's best new writers.

The Memory of Love

The Memory of Love won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book Award in 2011. The judges called it "a bold, deeply moving and accomplished novel." They said Forna was "among the most talented writers in literature today." The Memory of Love was also considered for the International Dublin Literary Award 2012. It was also shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2011.

The book was discussed on the BBC Radio 4 programme Bookclub. Aminatta Forna talked about it with James Naughtie.

Girl Rising

Aminatta Forna was one of 10 writers who worked on the film 10x10 Girl Rising (2012).

The film shares the stories of 10 girls in 10 different countries. Famous writers wrote the girls' stories. Well-known actresses like Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway narrated them. The film was first shown at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2013.

Forna wrote about Mariama. Mariama is a smart woman who studies engineering. She works to help other young girls get an education. Her role models also support education, including Sia Koroma, the First Lady of Sierra Leone.

The Hired Man

The Hired Man was Aminatta Forna's third novel. It was published in the UK in March 2013.

Critics praised Forna's detailed research. They also liked her ability to create a strong sense of place and emotion.

In the United States, The Boston Globe said that "not since The Remains of the Day has an author so skilfully revealed the way history's layers are often invisible to all but its participants, who do what they must to survive".

Happiness

Happiness, Forna's fourth novel, was published in the US in March 2018. It came out in the UK in April 2018. The book explores themes like love, trauma, and belonging. It also looks at the conflict between nature and cities. It shows how different experiences can make people stronger.

In the story, a psychiatrist named Dr. Attila Asara from Ghana meets Jean Turane from America by chance. Their new relationship helps them grow. Dr. Asara suggests that people try to live a "wrinkle-free" life. But he also says that you need to experience discomfort to live a full life. He compares people who have survived trauma to foxes. The foxes try to outsmart humans. Trauma survivors try to outsmart the damage they went through to live a normal life.

Happiness was on many recommended reading lists. These included BBC Culture, The Root, and The Guardian.

The Washington Post called Forna a "subtle and knowing" writer. It said she could weave "weighty matter into her buoyant creation with a sublimely delicate touch." The Seattle Times wrote that Forna's writing is "precise... stunning in its clarity."

Kirkus Reviews featured Forna on its cover. It wrote: "Low-key yet piercingly empathetic, Forna's latest explores instinct, resilience, and the complexity of human coexistence, reaffirming her reputation for exceptional ability and perspective." The Sunday Times review noted: "Forna circles... Her path is never straight, she doubles back, crisscrosses... she approaches the thought from elliptical angles, bringing moments of startling clarity. This walk is never dull."

Happiness was named one of the best books of 2018 by many international lists. These included Kirkus Reviews and The Guardian.

In March 2019, Happiness was longlisted for the European Literature Prize. In April 2019, it was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) Ondaatje Prize and the Jhalak Prize.

The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion

In December 2020, Aminatta Forna announced her essay collection. It was called The Window Seat and was published in May 2021.

In January 2021, LitHub listed The Window Seat as one of the most anticipated books of the year. A reviewer for Harper's Magazine wrote: "With this collection, she proves a compelling essayist too, her voice direct, lucid, and fearless." The Boston Globe praised Forna's "fine command over both language and life." It also noted her "vivid, keenly observed anecdotes."

Time magazine chose The Window Seat as one of twelve "must read" books in May 2021. The Washington Independent Review of Books called it "a collection that defies convention." The Los Angeles Times noted Forna's ability to include "experiences that are so individual another essayist would make them the centre of a piece." It described The Window Seat as "intelligent, curious and broad." The New York Times review said that "Forna's ruminations are deeply felt yet unsentimental... whose wide-ranging subjects chart a path toward a kind of freedom, to be at home, always elsewhere."

Mother of All Myths

Mother of All Myths is a novel written by Aminatta Forna. It was released in July 1998. HarperCollins published it.

Awards and Recognition

Aminatta Forna has received many awards and honors for her writing.

Special Honors

• 2014: She won the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for Fiction. This award is worth $150,000, making it one of the largest literary prizes in the world.
• 2016: She was a finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.
• 2017: She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). This was for her services to literature.
• 2019: She was named one of OkayAfrica's "One Hundred Women."

See also

In Spanish: Aminatta Forna para niños