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 | |
| Born | 1968 Brussels, Belgium |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer |
| Language | French |
| Alma mater | HEC Lausanne Paris Dauphine University |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Notable awards | Fénéon Prize Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire |
| Website | |
| www | |
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
- 7 secondes plus au nord (7 Seconds North ), Nouvelle Revue Française n° 587, Gallimard, 2008.
- Bionic Woman, Les Balançoires (Ananda Devi (ed.)), éditions Tropiques, Yaoundé, 2006.
- Le cru et le cuit, adaptation of Claude Lévi-Strauss's Le cru et le cuit, in Dernières nouvelles du colonialisme, Vent d'ailleurs, 2006
- Les Compagnies Low-Cost (Low-Cost Companies), in Nouvelles Mythologies, Éditions du Seuil, Paris, 2007
- Courant d'air aux Galeries (Drafts in Galleries), Eden productions, Paris, 2003
References
- Perisic, Alexandra (2019). Precarious Crossings: Immigration, Neoliberalism, and the Atlantic. Ohio: Ohio State University Press. pp. 89–120.
- Le Monde Diplomatique, Anne-Cécile Robert, December 2007
- Lire, R.B, September 1999
- Le Nouvel Observateur, Didier Jacob, 8 February 2007
- "Prix d'hiver variés". liberation.fr. 13 December 2001. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
- "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