Sudanese author Leila Aboulela just announced that she will be coming to Wisconsin as the last stop on her North American book tour for River Spirit. We are thrilled that she will be making her way to Brittle Paper’s homebase this October!

Leila Aboulela is a Sudanese author whose work has been translated into 15 languages. She grew up in Khartoum, Sudan, and now lives in Aberdeen, Scotland. She was the first winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing back in 2000 and has been thrice nominated for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her published novels include Bird Summons (2019), The Kindness of Enemies (2015), and Lyrics Alley (2011), which won the Fiction category of the Scottish Book Awards. Check out our interview with Aboulela about River Spirit here.

River Spirit is a tale about an enslaved young woman’s coming of age during the Mahdist War in nineteenth century Sudan. Set against the backdrop of British imperialist history, the main character Akuany and her brother Bol are orphaned in a village raid and taken in by the merchant Yaseen who promises to care for them. However, Yaseen and the children are split apart after he decides to oppose the rising revolutionary leader, the self-proclaimed Mahdi. Young Akuany is sold and traded from house to house across the country and everything is on the line in the fight for Sudan.

Aboulela will visit Wisconsin on October 20 at 6 pm, when she will be presenting at the prestigious Wisconsin Book Festival. The event is free and will include a book reading and Q&A to follow. We highly recommend you attend if you live in the area!

Congrats to Aboulela on making it out to Wisconsin! See details for her full book tour below.

October 3: The Lannan Center, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
October 4: City of Asylum’s International Literature Festival, Pittsburgh, PA
October 9-10: Kenyon College, Gambier, OH
October 12: Fall for the Book Festival, Fairfax, VA
October 16: American University, Washington, DC
October 17: Simmons University – Resist! Political Resistance in Literature and Film
October 20: Wisconsin Book Festival, Madison, WI