Bessora

Bessora (born 1968, Brussels, Belgium) is a novelist and short story writer. After a career in international finance in Geneva, she studied anthropology and wrote her first novel. Since 1999 Bessora has published a book a year on average, mainly through the publishing group Gallimard. Her books have been translated into several languages.

Bessora
Bessora at the Louvre in 2007
Bessora at the Louvre in 2007
Born1968
Brussels, Belgium
OccupationNovelist, short story writer
LanguageFrench
Alma materHEC Lausanne
Paris Dauphine University
GenreFiction
Notable awardsFénéon Prize
Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire
Website
www.bessora.fr

Biography

Because of her numerous stays abroad (Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, France, the United States, Gabon)[1] and her varied origins (Gabon, Switzerland, France, Germany, Poland), Bessora's writing possesses a free, demanding, and unclassifiable character.[2]

Having first dreamed of being a stewardess, Bessora later attended the HEC Lausanne, and then the Paris Dauphine University. After obtaining a degree in management and a master's degree in applied economics, she worked in finance before changing course. Following a journey in South Africa, she studied anthropology in Paris, before publishing her first novel in 1999. She obtained a doctorate in anthropology in 2002, and continued to write novels. She has been compared to Raymond Queneau,[3] and Nathalie Sarraute.[4]

She was awarded the Fénéon Prize in 2001 for her novel Ink Stains,[5] and the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire in 2007 for her novel Pick Me Pretty Sirs...[6]

Selected novels

  • 53 cm, Le Serpent à Plumes, Paris, 1999
  • Les Taches d'encre (Ink Stains), Le Serpent à Plumes, Paris, 2000 – (Fénéon Prize)
  • Deux bébés et l'addition (Two Babies and the Bill), Le Serpent à Plumes, Paris, 2002
  • Petroleum, Denoël, Paris, 2004
  • Cueillez-moi jolis messieurs... (Pick Me Pretty Sirs...), Gallimard, Paris, 2007 – (Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire)
  • Et si Dieu me demande, dites-Lui que je dors (If God Asks, Tell Him I'm Sleepling), Gallimard, Paris, 2008

Short stories

References

  1. Perisic, Alexandra (2019). Precarious Crossings: Immigration, Neoliberalism, and the Atlantic. Ohio: Ohio State University Press. pp. 89–120.
  2. Le Monde Diplomatique, Anne-Cécile Robert, December 2007
  3. Lire, R.B, September 1999
  4. Le Nouvel Observateur, Didier Jacob, 8 February 2007
  5. "Prix d'hiver variés". liberation.fr. 13 December 2001. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
  6. "Association des écrivains de langue française". adelf.info. Archived from the original on 26 February 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2014.

Sources

  • "Bessora, a Writer with a Thirty-Eight Shoe Size", Adele King, in Wasafiri, 1747–1508, Volume 24, Issue 2, 2009, pp. 60–65.
  • "Bessora", in World Literature Today, Volume 75, 77, 79, 81 (2002, 2003, 2005, 2007).
  • "Bessora", in The French Review, Eilene Hoft-March, May 2009.
  • Bessora, at the Berlin International Literature Festival
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