Bushra Elfadil

Bushra Elfadil (Arabic: بشرى الفاضل, born 1952 in northern Sudan) is a Sudanese writer, living in Saudi Arabia. He has published several collections of short stories and novels in Arabic, with some of his stories translated into English, for example as part of anthologies of contemporary fiction from Sudan. In 2017, he was awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing.

Bushra ElFadil
Native name
بشرى الفاضل
BornBushra Elfadil
1952 (age 70–71)
Araggi, Northern State of Sudan
Occupationwriter, former lecturer in Russian
Years active1970–

Career

Elfadil was born in 1952 in the village of Araggi in the Northern State of Sudan.[1] Later, he moved with his family to the village of Wad El-Bor in the state of Al Jazirah in central Sudan, where he received his primary education.[1]

He studied in Moscow and received his PhD in Russian language and literature. When he returned to Sudan, he was appointed as lecturer in the department for Russian language in the Faculty of Arts at Khartoum University. After protests against the military government of Omar al-Bashir in the early 1990s, he was expelled from that university, along with other lecturers and hundreds of students.[2]

Personal life

Elfadil has a daughter and four sons. Two of them, Basil and Bahir pursue careers as doctors. In 2018, he emigrated to Toronto in Canada,[3] and currently lives there.

Recognition

In 2012, he was awarded the El-Tayeb Salih Prize for Creative Writing in Arabic by the Sudanese ministry of culture. Further, he won the Caine Prize in 2017 with "The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away", published in The Book of Khartoum - A City in Short Fiction.[4][5][6] In a review, this story was characterised as follows: "...the winning story is one that explores through metaphor and an altered, inventive mode of perception – including, for the first time in the Caine Prize, illustration – the allure of, and relentless threats to freedom."[2] In 2016, his story 'Two spaces objects over Bandar' was published in Literary Sudans : an anthology of literature from Sudan and South Sudan.[7]

Works

Elfadil has published several collections of short stories and novels in Arabic:[8]

  • Hikkayat al-bint allati tarrat asafiraha (The story of the girl whose birds flew away) - short story
  • Azrraq Alyamama
  • Al-hossan al-tayer (The Flying Horse), a collection of children's stories
  • Gassied fil zil (Poems in the shadow)
  • Above a City’s Sky (2012)

References
  1. "Bushra el-Fadil", Banipal, No. 56, Generation '56 (Summer 2016).
  2. "Bushra Elfadil". Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice. Retrieved 2021-07-07.
  3. "Bushra el-Fadil's Theory of Everything – PEN Canada". pencanada.ca. 2019-12-16. Retrieved 2021-07-07.
  4. Otosirieze Obi-Young, "Sudanese Poet Bushra al-Fadil Wins the 2017 Caine Prize, Setting Three Records" Archived 2018-11-25 at the Wayback Machine, Brittle Paper, 3 July 2017.
  5. Osman Mohamed Osman, "Sudanese author Bushra al-Fadil wins Caine Prize" Archived 2017-07-08 at the Wayback Machine, KPAX, 4 July 2017.
  6. Lisa Campbell, "Story exploring freedom wins Caine Prize for African Writing", The Bookseller, 4 July 2017.
  7. Shringarpure, Bhakti; Liyong, Taban lo; Babikir, Adil; Aboulela, Leila (2016). Literary Sudans: an anthology of literature from Sudan and South Sudan. ISBN 978-1-56902-434-8. OCLC 1141872164.
  8. "Results for 'بشرى الفاضل' [WorldCat.org]". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved 2021-07-07.
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