The Department of Italian Studies at UC Berkeley proudly presents:

Reading Session and Q&A with poet and novelist Ubah Cristina Ali Farah

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Born in Verona, Italy, to a Somali father and an Italian mother, Ali Farah grew up in Mogadishu, Somalia, until the civil war in 1991 forced her to leave. She spent several years in Hungary before returning to Italy and settling in Rome. She now lives in Brussels.

Ali Farah has published three novels: Madre piccola (Frassinelli, 2007), translated into English as Little Mother  in 2011, Il comandante del fiume (66thand2nd, 2014), translated as The Commander of the River  in 2023, and Le stazioni della luna (66thand2nd, 2021).

She has participated in numerous international creative writing programs, including the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, and those offered by the Civitella Ranieri Foundation and the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study. Additionally, she was awarded the prestigious Italian literary awards, Lingua Madre  in 2006 and the Vittorini  in 2008.

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 For accommodation/mobility requests, please contact issa@berkeley.edu