The Ghanaian-American writer Yaa Gyasi was born in 1989 in Mampong, a small town in the Ashanti region that functioned as the residence of the Kings of Ashanti in tandem with the city of Kumasi. Her family moved to the US in 1991 after Gyasi’s father received his doctorate from
Wole Soyinka was born in Abeokuta, western Nigeria, in 1934. Following Literature and Drama Studies in Nigeria (Ibadan) and England (Leeds) he worked at the London Royal Court Theatre as an actor and dramatic advisor, where he also wrote his first plays. In 1960 he returned to Nigeria, where he
William Gass was born in Fargo, North Dakota, in 1924. He grew up in Ohio and served in the Marines during World War II. In 1954 he completed his degree in Philosophy at Kenyon College and at Cornell University with a doctorate on metaphor. Ever since, language, style and the
William M. Drozdiak was born in 1949 and studied politics and economics in the USA and in Belgium. From 1971 to 1978 he was a professional basketball player, also in Europe. After working as a journalist for several American newspapers, writing mainly about international politics, he became head of the
born in Maryland in 1957, studied Biology at the technical university of Hanover. Completed his diploma in Botany in 1985 and achieved his doctorate at the Max-Planck-Institute in Cologne in 1988. One year later, Martin moved to Braunschweig, where he worked at the institute for genetics and conducted research on
Willie Perdomo grew up in East Harlem, New York. He distinguished himself as a poet and performer with his first appearances at the »Nuyorican Poets Café«. His first collection of poems, »Smoking Lovely« (2003), received the PEN/Beyond Margins Award. Perdomo has also written an award-winning children’s book. He teaches at
Willy Vlautin was born in Reno, Nevada in 1967. He was the founder, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of the band Richmond Fontaine (1994-2016) and now plays in the band The Delines. He wrote his first stories and songs at the age of eleven, inspired by songwriters and novelists such
Born in 1955 in New Orleans, Louisiana, he is a former basketball player. He studied economics in California before moving to Germany in 1977 to play in the German Basketball League for the SSC Göttingen. At the same time, he studied business administration at the University of Göttingen. In 2017
works in multiple genres. In addition to being a poet, he is also a novelist, essayist, aphorist, playwright, philosopher, visual artist, and pianist. His praxis of language is not unlike the Mayan numerical world, where each letter of the alphabet spontaneously engages in non-limit. Thus, all fields of experience are
Wanda Coleman was born in Watts in 1946. This Southern Californian community became known in 1965 for a six-day riot, triggered by an assault by white policemen on Marcus Frye, a black man. The »Watts Riots« prompted Coleman to turn to writing as her preferred means of artistic expression, and
Wayne Koestenbaum is a New York poet and cultural critic. He studied at Harvard, received a Ph.D. at Princeton and writes for journals such as the »London Review of Books«, »New York Magazine« and the »Times Magazine«. Koestenbaum has published one novel, a biography of Andy Warhol, five volumes of
Wells Tower was born in 1973 in Vancouver, Canada, and grew up in North Carolina. He studied anthropology and sociology at Wesleyan University, and creative writing at Columbia University. He then traveled extensively around the US, taking odd jobs and living paycheck to paycheck – a time in his life
