«Of Somali origin and Italian by vocation», Igiaba Scego graduated in Modern Languages at "La Sapienza" University. She devotes her time both to narrative, journalistic and academic research. In her works, she always try to keep a balance between her original and her adoptive culture. In 2003, she won the Eks&tra Prize with her story Salsiccia ad published her debut novel, La nomade che amava Alfred Hitchcock. Her novel Oltre Babilonia is a feminine saga poised between Somalia, Italy and Argentina. Then she continued to publish novels, short stories and essays ( (La mia casa è dove sono – winner of the Mondello Prize –, Roma negata, Adua, Caetano Veloso, Prestami le Ali) translated in many foreign languages, included the lasts La linea del colore (Bompiani, 2020) and Cassandra a Mogadiscio (Bompiani, 2023). She writes for the Italian weekly Internazionale.

(photo: © Simona Filippini)