Ibrahima Aya | Residency

July - September 2023 — Literature

During his residency at Château de Lavigny from 25 July to 18 September 2023, Malian writer Ibrahima Aya will work on the manuscript for a new novel that engages with the catastrophic effects of climate change on the fragile ecosystems of the Sahel region and the resilience of communities embodied by women. The story will be spread over a period of one hundred years, from 1894 to 1994, and told through the extraordinary destiny of the princess Faguibine, who is associated with the tragic fate of Lake Faguibine.

Alongside his literary, editorial and literature promotion activities, Ibrahima is a practicing agricultural engineer in Bamako. The residency will provide him dedicated time for writing, as well as the opportunity to connect and exchange with other writers, publishers and literary event organisers.

BIOGRAPHY

A native of the Timbuktu region in Mali, Ibrahima Aya is an agricultural engineer, writer and editor. Co-founder of Editions Tombouctou, he lives in Bamako where, alongside his literary and editorial activities, he exercises his profession as an agronomist. Ibrahima has notably published: Les larmes de Djoliba, Les âniers de la Casbah, Querelle autour d’un âge, Rires et pleurs des orphelins. He has also participated in or co-edited the writing of several collective works including: Voix hautes pour Tombouctou, Le Mali entre doutes et espoirs, Le Mali contemporain. Le pays des éclipses, published in 2021, is his most recent work. In 2011, Ibrahima created the “Bibliothèque des dédicaces” in Timbuktu to bring together books donated and autographed by their authors with the aim of combating intolerance by sharing knowledge and imagination. Ibrahima is the co-founder and director of the four-day literary festival Rentrée littéraire du Mali, first created in 2008, and which has grown into one of the main celebrations of literature, words and ideas in Africa.