Sony Labou Tansi, from what is now the Congo (DRC), died in 1995 but a couple of years ago I hoped the English translation of his Life and a Half would make for a bit of a revival, at least in the English-speaking world.
(Several of his works have been translated -- see also reviews of The Antipeople, Parentheses of Blood, and The seven solitudes of Lorsa Lopez.)
That doesn't seem to have worked out (yet ?) -- but things are looking up in France: his collection Encre, sueur, salive et sang (see the Seuil publicity page) has been longlisted for this year's prix Renaudot (in the non-fiction category) -- and more impressively still, a massive (1260-page !) collected edition of his Poèmes has just come out; see the CNRS publicity page , or get your copy at Amazon.fr.
I suppose the best we can eventually hope for in English is a slim selected-edition -- but I sure hope someone goes for the whole thing. No doubt that he's one of the most important African authors of the second half of the twentieth century, and it's great to see he's still such a presence, at least in the French literary scene.
That doesn't seem to have worked out (yet ?) -- but things are looking up in France: his collection Encre, sueur, salive et sang (see the Seuil publicity page) has been longlisted for this year's prix Renaudot (in the non-fiction category) -- and more impressively still, a massive (1260-page !) collected edition of his Poèmes has just come out; see the CNRS publicity page , or get your copy at Amazon.fr.
I suppose the best we can eventually hope for in English is a slim selected-edition -- but I sure hope someone goes for the whole thing. No doubt that he's one of the most important African authors of the second half of the twentieth century, and it's great to see he's still such a presence, at least in the French literary scene.