September 18, 2009: Hisham Matar and Leeto Thale
September 14th, 2009|
AFRICAN WRITERS’ EVENING feat. Hisham Matar & Leeto Thale
Friday 18 September 2009 7.30pm (doors)
Poetry Cafe, 22 Betterton Street, London (Covent Garden tube) 4.00 / 3.00 (conc) Info: www.x-bout.com/awe Tickets: http://www.urgoing.to/awe This September, African Writers’ Evening features debut unpublished novelist Leeto Thale (South Africa) alongside our most famous previous unpublished novelist, Hisham Matar (Libya) for a feast embracing Northern and Southern Africa, celebrating endeavour and success. As usual, there will be floor spots from some of the emerging African writers on the UK scene. Hosted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes. |
Hisham Matar
Hisham Matar was born in New York in 1970, spent his childhood in Tripoli and Cairo and has lived in London since 1986. His first novel In the Country of Men, was written in a captivating child’s voice and won universal acclaim, being shortlisted for the Booker Prize and Guardian First Book Prize and winning several awards including the Commonwealth Prize and Ondaatje Prize. He has also written articles and commentary for The Guardian, The Independent, The Times and The New York Times. Hisham has recently completed an early draft of his second novel.
LEETO THALE: Leeto Thale was born in Soweto, South Africa where he was schooled both in Soweto’s public schools and later in the private education initiatives designed to counter the under-education of Black children by the South African government at the time. A podiatrist who dreamed of playing professional football, Leeto’s love of writing and music was nurtured while working for the Steve Biko Foundation. He has since written for numerous publications in South Africa and the UK, is a published poet, and also dabbles in singing and songwriting. Leeto, continues to practice as a Podiatrist, while making inroads with his art. He has just returned from performing at WOMAD and is in the final stages of composing his music album, as well as his first novel.
