He was born in 1966 in the Republic of Congo and he spent his childhood in Pointe-Noire, the nation´s financial capital. He earned a bachelor´s degree in Literature and Philosophy, and then focused on a Law degree. After working at various American universities, he is currently a professor of French Studies and Comparative Literature at UCLA, University of California - Los Angeles.

He is the author of novels, poetry books and several short stories that have been published in various newspapers like Le Figaro (Paris) or Le Soir (Brussels), and has also written collective works such as Nouvelles d’Afrique (Stories of Africa, 2003) or Vu de la lune, Nouvelles optimistes (View from the moon: An Anthology of Optimistic Short Stories, 2005).

Verre Cassé (Broken Glass) received three awards in 2005: The Ouest-France-Etonnants Voyageurs Novel Award, Prix des cinq continents de la Francophonie award, and the RFO Book Award.  Another important work is the novel titled Mémoires de porc-épic (Memoirs of a Porcupine), with which he earned the prestigious Renaudot award in 2006 (it slipped from his reach the previous year by only one vote).

Sources:

• www.alainmabanckou.net

• www.alphadecay.org

Consult the availability of publications at the Casa África Mediateca (Media Library)