Alain Mabanckou was born in Congo in 1966. An award-winning novelist, poet, and essayist, Mabanckou lives in Los Angeles, where he teaches literature at UCLA. He is the author of African Psycho, Broken Glass, Black Bazaar, and Tomorrow I’ll Be Twenty, as well as The Lights of Pointe-Noire and Black Moses. Among his many honors are the Académie Française’s Grand Prix de literature, awarded in recognition of his entire literary career, and the 2016 French Voices Award for The Lights of Pointe-Noire, which was described by Salman Rushdie as “a beautiful book.” Mabanckou is a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur, was a finalist for the 2015 and 2017 Man Booker International Prize, and has been featured on Vanity Fair’s list of France’s 50 most influential people.
Photo Credit: Caroline Blache