Novelist Aminatta Forna to speak on writing through war, memory and identity


Fri, 11/08/2013

author

Samantha Bishop-Simmons

LAWRENCE — Novelist Aminatta Forna will discuss her newly released novel, "The Hired Man," at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, in the Hall Center for the Humanities Conference Hall. The event is free and open to the public, and a reception and book signing will follow.

"The Hired Man" takes place in the Croatian town of Gost, deeply affected by the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Grappling with war, memory and identity rests at the center of the narrative.

As Frances Perraudin in The Guardian notes, "'The Hired Man' is an ingenious examination of the kind of ghosts that those with no experience of war are unable to see." The book became available in the United States through Bloomsbury in October 2013.

Forna was born in Glasgow, Scotland, raised in Sierra Leone and Britain, and also spent periods of her childhood in Iran, Thailand and Zambia. She is the award-winning author of two other novels, "The Memory of Love" and "Ancestor Stones," and a memoir, "The Devil That Danced on the Water," which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. She also has written short stories and essays, and for radio and television.

Forna assumed the position of Sterling Brown Visiting Professor at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., in September.

Fri, 11/08/2013

author

Samantha Bishop-Simmons

Media Contacts

Victor Bailey

Hall Center for the Humanities

785-864-7822