Igiaba Scego

Igiaba Scego (born 20 March 1974 in Rome)[1] is an Italian writer, journalist, and activist of Somali origin.

Igiaba Scego
Igiaba Scego speaking at Festivaletteratura.

Biography

Scego's father was a prominent Somali politician.[2] She graduated in Foreign Literature at the First University of Rome (La Sapienza) and obtained a PhD in pedagogy at the Third University of Rome. Presently, she is writing about and researching cultural dialogue and migration.

Works

She writes for various magazines dealing with migrant literature and African literature, such as Latinoamerica, Carta, El Ghibli and Migra. Her works include autobiographical references, and they depict the delicate balance between her two cultural realities, the Italian and Somali.

In 2003, she won the Eks & Tra prize for migrant writers with her story "Salsicce", and published her debut novel, La nomade che amava Alfred Hitchcock. In 2006 she attended the Literature festival in Mantua.

Scego collaborates with newspapers such as La Repubblica and Il manifesto and contributes to the magazine Nigrizia with an opinion column, titled "The colors of Eve". In 2007 along with Ingy Mubiayi, she edited the short story collection Quando nasci è una roulette. Giovani figli di migranti si raccontano. It follows the story of seven boys and girls of African origin, who were born in Rome of foreign parents or came to Italy when young. In 2011, she won the "Premio Mondello" with her book La mia casa è dove sono, which was published the previous year by Rizzoli. In 2017, her book Adua was translated into English by Jamie Richards, and in 2019, Aaron Robertson translated her book Oltre Babilonia, again into English, with the title Beyond Babylon.

Bibliography
  • La nomade che amava Alfred Hitchcock, Rome: Edizioni Sinnos, 2003.
  • Rhoda, Rome: Edizioni Sinnos, 2004.
  • Pecore nere. Racconti with Gabriela Kuruvilla, Ingy Mubiayi, Laila Wadia, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2005.
  • Quando nasci è una roulette. Giovani figli di migranti si raccontano, Edizioni Terre di Mezzo, 2007.
  • Amori Bicolori. Racconti, Roma, edizioni Laterza, 2007.
  • Oltre Babilonia, Donzelli editore, 2008. English translation (by Aaron Robertson): Beyond Babylon, Two Lines Press, 2019.
  • L'albero in Nessuna Pietà, Salani editore, 2009.
  • La mia casa è dove sono, Rizzoli, 2010. Libro autobiografico che descrive una famiglia dispersa tra Somalia, Gran Bretagna e Italia.[3]
  • Roma Negata, coautrice con Rino Bianchi. Ediesse, 2014.
  • Adua, Giunti 2015.
  • La linea del colore, Bompiani, 2020.

English translations
  • Adua. Translated by Jamie Richards. New Vessel Press, 2017.
  • Beyond Babylon. Translated by Aaron Robertson. Two Lines Press, 2019.

References
  1. "Rimappare l'Italia. Incontro con la scrittrice Igiaba Scego" (PDF). Quaderno Culturale Queens College Italian Program Newsletter (Spring): 3–4. 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  2. "Igiaba Scego biog, Institute of Modern Language Research". Archived from the original on 3 May 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  3. "A Review of La mia casa è dove sono" (PDF). Quaderno Culturale Queens College Italian Program Newsletter (5, Spring). 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2017.

Further reading
  • Simone Brioni. The Somali Within. Language, Race and Belonging in 'Minor' Italian Literature. Cambridge: Legenda, 2015.
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