Jean-Marie.V. RURANGWA

Jean-Marie.V. RURANGWA
2004 Resident
  • Africa
  • Eastern Africa
  • Rwanda
French

Jean-Marie.V. RURANGWA (playwright, essayist; b. 1959, Rwanda) has written several plays and essays about the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda. As a child, Mr. Rurangwa and his family were moved to a refugee camp in Burundi where he began attending primary school. He moved on to study French literature at the University of Burundi, and in 1999 received a degree in African language and linguistics at the University of Brussels. His plays have been translated into Italian and performed in Rome. Mr. Rurangwa currently teaches social sciences at the National University of Rwanda in Kigali, and is the artistic director of a theatre group, Izuba, and of the cultural club 'Rara Avis' there. He is participating through the generosity of the University of Iowa.

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Happening Now

  • In addition to becoming the Berlin LitFest’s first curator-in-residence, Helon Habila has also just received Kaduna Books and Art Festival’s KabaFest Lifetime Achievement Award, celebrating his "exceptional writing and significant contributions to the development of literature globally."

  • Congratulations to Enah Johnscott, whose film Half Heaven won three awards at the Cameroon International Film Festival—best film, best director, and best cinematographer.

  • We regret the passing, on April 11, 2024, of the distinguished Romanian author and critic Dan Cristea, who served as the editor in chief of the Luceafărul de Dimineață cultural monthly. In addition to being an alum of the 1985 Fall Residency, Cristea received his PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Iowa.

  • Our congratulations to 1986 Fall Residency writer Kwame Dawes, who has been named the new poet laureate of Jamaica.

  • Congratulations to our colleagues Jennifer Croft and Aron Aji, who are among those serving as judges for the National Book Awards this year, in their case in the category of translated literature.

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