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Albert Russo
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from Martin Tucker’s preface to 'Mixed Blood' and ‘Eclipse over lake Tanganyika’
“Albert Russo’s work has many distinctive qualities. 'Mixed Blood' and ‘Eclipse over lake Tanganyika’ are especially distinguished by Russo’s startingly precise grasp of the historic period of mid-twentieth-century Central Africa. His work bears twinship to V.S. Naipaul’s (Nobel prize winner) 'A Bend in the River
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A bilingual author, Albert Russo writes in both English and French, his two ‘mother tongues’. He speaks five languages fluently and has a vernacular and/or reading knowledge of three other languages, in this order: English, French, Italian (his 'paternal' tongue), Spanish, German, Swahili, Portuguese and Dutch.
He was born in Congo/Zaire and grew up in Central and Southern Africa (Rwanda-Burundi and Zimbabwe, the land of his mother). He then left Africa for the United States and graduated from New York University (majoring in Economics and studying Psychology). He subsequently moved to northern Italy where his father (Italian-born) settled with the family and worked there in the latter's import-export business. He subsequently returned to New York, where he taught languages, worked as a translator for World Press Review (among other magazines) and adapted films for Unicef. After a stay of 8 years in the States, he moved to Paris, France, where he still resides.
He was married (and divorced) twice and has two children - Tatiana and Alexandre - of whom he is very proud.
Birth Place: Kamina, Congo / Zaire
Accomplishments: He is the recipient of many awards, such as The American Society of Writers Fiction Award, The British Diversity Short Story Award, several New York Poetry Forum Awards, Amelia Prose and Poetry awards and the Prix Colette, among others. He has also been nominated for the W.B. Yeats and Robert Penn Warren poetry awards. His work, which has been praised by James Baldwin, Pierre Emmanuel, Paul Willems and Edmund White, has appeared worldwide in a dozen languages. His African novels have been favorably compared to V.S. Naipaul’s work, which was honored with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001. He just got an honorable mention for 'The Crowded World of Solitude', volume 1 (the collected stories),at Writer's Digest's 13th International annual Awards. He is a member of the jury for the Prix Européen (sharing the panel with Eugene Ionesco until his death) and sat in 1996 on the panel of the prestigious Neustadt Prize for Literature, which often leads to the Nobel Prize.
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Books
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 | And there was David-Kanza by Albert Russo
This is the story of Sandro Romano-Livi, a young Italian Jew, leaving his Mediterranean island by boat, for the Belgian Congo (DR Congo), in 1926, as a stowaway. Of his adventurous life in Central Africa, during the first fifteen years, of David-Kanza (aka Daviko), the mulatto son he adopts, a secret he will disclose to his white Anglican fiancée, Gloria Simpson, born and raised in Rhodesia (Zimba...
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk
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 | Boundaries of Exile / Conditions of Hope by Albert Russo
BOUNDARIES OF EXILE/ Conditions of Hope
by Albert Russo and Martin Tucker
A primer on exile through stories, poems, and essays
A personal and passionate search for definitions of identity from two writers who have witnessed the crimes of exile and recorded the triumphs of survival beyond such adversities. Russo and Tucker explore the struggles, both humorous and tragic, tha...
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk
Barnes & Noble.com
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Short Stories
The age of the pearl by Albert Russo
little girl and grandfather survive in the age of the pearl...
Lebensborn by Albert Russo
American daughter discovers she had a Nazi mother...
New York Bonus by Albert Russo
Australian tourist experiences a comical incident in the Big Apple...
Fast food Lisette by Albert Russo
French concierge Lisette is retired and she goes for the first time in her life to a fastfood restaurant on the Champs Elysées. Her comical reactions...
Souk Secrets by Albert Russo
Young French marines taking a break in Tunis' souk and the often comical adventures they live....
The spell of Mayaland by Albert Russo
brother and sister discover Chichen-Itza in Mexico and meet Maya ghosts ...
Spirit of Tar by Albert Russo
young African torn between tradition and modernity...
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Poetry
To my fellow poets by Albert Russo
the poet and his doubts...
Pixel power, from his book, CWS2 by Albert Russo
the computer age...
Lost identity by Albert Russo
questioning oneself...
Emotionally trashed by Albert Russo
sibling rivalry...
Remembrance of a corrected past by Albert Russo
mother...
The little things that add up in life by Albert Russo
marriage and humor...
Dramatis personae, from his book CWS2 by Albert Russo
the many facets of one's personality...
Now, then and forever, from his book CWS2 by Albert Russo
the link between periods of one's life...
Choo-choo boy, from his book CWS2 (The Crowded World of Solitude, volume2) by Albert Russo
the child hidden in the adult...
Call of the Falasha, from his book Futureyes by Albert Russo
the Jews from Ethiopia...
Cormorant of Yangshuo, from his book Futureyes by Albert Russo
fishing cormorant and his master...
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Articles
The writer as a chameleon - bilingualism in three continents by Albert Russo
The writer as a chameleon: bilingualism and the many cultures encountered by the author on the three continents where he has resided...
Crisis and creativity in the new literatures in English by Albert Russo
a survey of contemporary literature in the English-speaking world...
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News
fiction, poetry and photo books by Albert Russo by Albert Russo
fiction, poetry and photo books by Albert Russo...
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Links
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| www.bilingualmca.bravehost.com/russo2.html
bio and books
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Poets & Writers
bio and books
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Xlibris books by Albert Russo
books with Xlibris
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google search for Albert Russo
books by and articles on Albert Russo
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Additional information
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| His most recent novels: in English: ZANY, ZAPINETTE NEW YORK, MIXED BLOOD and ECLIPSE OVER LAKE TANGANYIKA all with Domhan Books (NY); in French: L’AMANT DE MON PÈRE (Ed. Le Nouvel Athanor), ZAPINETTE CHEZ LES BELGES, l’ANCETRE NOIRE, TOUR DU MONDE DE LA POESIE GAY, LA TOUR SHALOM, all four with Editions Hors Commerce (Paris). Last publications in English: THE BENEVOLENT AMERICAN IN THE HEART OF DARKNESS (the trilogy of my award-winning African novels:‘The Black Ancestor’,'Mixed Blood' and ‘Eclipse over lake Tanganyika’), OH ZAPERETTA (the hilarious series, taught at the Catholic University of Paris), and THE CROWDED WORLD OF SOLITUDE , volumes 1 & 2, the collected stories - which has just won an honorable mention at the Writer’s Digest International Awards - and the collected poems. Award finalist in National Best Books 2007, USAbooknews for the novel SHALOM TOWER SYNDROME, featured at the LA book Festival in May/June 2008 |
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