Shamsur Rahman Faruqi was born in 1935, graduating in English language and literature in 1955. He writes in Urdu, a language that was widely spoken and used by both Hindus and Muslims in the Indian subcontinent before the country’s Partition in 1947. After 1947, Urdu, for political and social reasons,
Sara Quigley was born in New Zealand in 1967. After graduating from Oxford University, she spent a year working for a newspaper in San Diego. Quigley published her first volume of short stories ‘Having words with you’, in 1998. A collection of poems followed in 1999. The same year her
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Rita Dove was born in 1952 in the industrial city of Akron, Ohio. After studying English, German and Music at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study European Literature at the University of Tübingen. Dove went on to study, and later teach, Creative Writing at
Raúl Zurita Canessa was born in Santiago de Chile in 1951, where he spent his childhood and school years. In 1967 he began his studies of Civil Engeneering at the Universidad Frederico Santa Maria in Valparaiso as well as Mathematics at the School of Technical Engeneering in Santiago. When on 11
Raphaël Confiant was born in Lorrain, a small village in northern Martinique, in 1951. He attended school in Fort-de-France and studied in Aix-en-Provence. Since 1979 he has been Professor of English and Creole on Martinique. In 1982 he helped found the independent weekly newspaper ‘Antilla’ which is distributed in the
Pura López Colomé was born in Mexico city in 1952. She spent her childhood and teenage years in the Mexican capital. During the school holidays she always went to Yucatán, the home state of her father, whose native tongue is Maya, and her mother who was of Catalan-Irish descent. Following
Péter Esterházy was born in Budapest in 1950. Although his grandfather owned land on a large-scale and was prime minister from 1917 to 1918, Esterházy grew up in poverty in a remote village, to which his family had been deported after the communist seizure of power. After going to a
Pamela Brown was born in Victoria, Australia in 1948. She grew up on military bases in Toowoomba and Brisbane, Queensland. Since 1968, she has mainly lived in Sydney with stints in the MacDonald Valley, the Blue & Dandenong Mountains, and Adelaide, where she worked with the Experimental Art Foundation (EAF).
Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul in 1952. He grew up in the Turkish capital and went to school at an English-speaking college. He studied architecture and then journalism at the University of Istanbul and started to work as a freelance writer. After publishing “Beyaz Kale” (1985; Eng. “The White
Olga Tokarczuk was born in 1962 in Sulechów near Zielona Góra in Poland. She studied clinical psychology at University of Warsaw. After graduating she initially worked as a therapist. Her first novel »Podróż ludzi Księgi« (tr: The Journey of the Book-People) was published in 1993, and was hailed by the
Namdeo Dhasal was born in a village near Poona, India, in 1947. As a member of the Dalits, the casteless (or ›untouchables‹) he grew up in direst poverty. Dhasal spent his childhood in Golpitha, a red-light district in Mumbai/Bombay, where his father worked for a butcher. Following the example of
