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Stella Gaitano

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Stella Gaitano
Gaitano in March 2024 at a panel discussion on the topic "Narrating War?" at the Schauspielhaus Zurich
Gaitano in March 2024 at a panel discussion on the topic "Narrating War?" at the Schauspielhaus Zurich
Native name
إستيلا قايتانو
Born (1979-11-17) 17 November 1979 (age 44)
Khartoum, Sudan
Occupationpharmacist and literary writer
CitizenshipSouth Sudan
Alma materUniversity of Khartoum
Genreshort stories, novel
Years active2002 – present
Notable awardsAli El-Mek Award, Sudan, PEN International Writers-in-Exile fellowship

Stella Gaitano (Arabic: إستيلا قايتانو, b. 17 November 1979 in Khartoum, Sudan)[1] is a literary writer, activist and former pharmacist from South Sudan. She is known for her stories, often dealing with the harsh living conditions of people from southern Sudan, who have endured discrimination and military dictatorship, war and displacement in the northern part of Sudan. Since the independence of South Sudan in 2011, she has also published short stories about life in her new nation.

Life and career

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Gaitano was born in Khartoum to parents who came from what is now South Sudan. She grew up speaking several languages, including Sudanese Arabic and her parents' native Latuka, a South Sudanese language. After having been exposed to stories in the oral tradition of her family, she learned to read and write in Arabic only at the age of ten or eleven.[2]

At the University of Khartoum, she studied in English and standard Arabic. Gaitano writes in Arabic, even though she has been criticized in South Sudan, where this language has been regarded as a "colonialist tool" of historical northern Sudanese domination.[3] In an article for the New York Times by Sudanese journalist Isma’il Kushkush, Gaitano said: "I love the Arabic language, and I adore writing in it. It is the linguistic mold that I want to fill my personal stories and culture in, distinguished from that of Arabs." She added: "It was important for me that northern Sudanese realize that there was life, values and a people who held a different culture, who needed space to be recognized and respected." Gaitano also said she was inspired to write after reading Sudanese novelist Tayeb Salih, and Arabic translations of Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende.[4]

After having lost her Sudanese citizenship and feeling part of both Sudanese states, Gaitano decided to relocate to Juba, the capital of South Sudan in 2012. There she worked as a pharmacist, while also pursuing her literary career. During her years in Juba, she further served as activist for humanitarian and educational projects.[3] In 2015, Gaitano had to move back to Khartoum, after having been harassed and attacked due to her criticism of the South Sudanese government for what she saw as its mismanagement, corruption, and its role in the South Sudanese civil war.[5]

In 2022, Gaitano was awarded a fellowship of the PEN International Writers-in-Exile programme in Germany. On 11 September 11 of the same year, she participated in the International Literature Festival Berlin, talking on a panel about contemporary Arabic literature, together with novelist Sabah Sanhouri from Khartoum.[6] Since then, she has been living in exile in Germany.[7]

Literary works

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Gaitano in June 2024 at a reading as part of the series "Literatures in Exile", organized by the Goethe-Institut in Exile and Media in Cooperation and Transition (MiCT), at the Berlin Kunsthaus ACUD.

Withered Flowers (2002), Gaitano's first short story collection, tells the stories of people who have been displaced by conflicts in southern Sudan, Darfur, and the Nuba mountains, and were forced to live in camps near Khartoum.[8] She wrote these stories between 1998 and 2002, when she was still a student.[9] According to literary critic Marcia Lynx Qualey, "This early work demonstrates vibrant wordplay, fearless empathy and a deep understanding of storycraft."[10]

In her second collection The Return (2018), Gaitano described the journey of South Sudanese people from the North to their newly created country. She described her characters' expectations and great hopes, and their even greater disappointments.[11] In 2016, her Testimony of a Sudanese Writer was featured in the English literary magazine Banipal's spring edition, titled "Sudanese Literature Today."[12]

For an exhibition for Sudanese painter Ibrahim el-Salahi at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2019, Gaitano was invited to use el-Salahi's Prison Notebook as a source of inspiration for a fictional narrative, and she focused her story The Rally of the Sixth of April on a fictional Sudanese photographer documenting the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19.[13][14]

In 2020, her Edo’s Souls, published in 2018, was the first South Sudanese novel to win the English PEN Writers Translates Award.[15] According to a review in literary magazine ArabLit, "The novel begins across a rural context, in a small impoverished village full of mystery, rituals, and superstition, and it ends in a jam-packed city with all its complications."[16][17]

Selected works

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Short stories
  • Withered Flowers, short stories, (2002), English translation by Anthony Calderbank[9]
  • A Lake the Size of a Papaya Fruit, (2003), won the Ali El-Mek Award in Sudan
  • The Return, short stories, Rafiki Publishing, Juba (2015), translated by Aisha Musa El-Said[18]
  • Everything here boils
  • Homecoming
  • Escape From the Regular
  • I kill myself and rejoice[19]
  • The Rally of the Sixth of April, (2019) (inspired by Ibrahim el-Salahi's prison notebook, in Arabic and English)[13]
  • Des mondes inconnus sur la carte (2009) in French anthology Nouvelles du Soudan[20]
  • Endlose Tage am Point Zero. Short stories in German translation. (2024) Berlin: Edition Orient, ISBN 978-3-945506-32-5.
Novel

Critical reception

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In January 2024, Marcia Lynx Qualey, literary critic and editor of ArabLit magazine, wrote a review about the English translation of Gaitano's debut novel Edo's Souls, titled "Children to fill the entire earth". The story takes place between southern Sudan and Khartoum, spanning several generations from the 1960s onwards. Referring to the many deaths in this novel, Lynx Qualey called it "an epic battle between the forces of Motherhood and Death."[21]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Stella Gaitano". Schauspielhaus Zürich. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  2. ^ Snaje, Olivia (21 April 2023). "Sudanese history & culture are woven together in Stella Gaitano's novel, 'Edo's Souls'". The Africa Report.com. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Stella Gaitano". inspire.gallery. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  4. ^ Isma’il Kushkush (25 December 2015). "Telling South Sudan's Tales in a Language Not Its Own". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 March 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  5. ^ Ridlowski, Fabian (2 October 2022). ""Der Regierung hat es nicht gefallen": Stella Gaitano musste fliehen" ["The government didn't like it": Stella Gaitano had to flee]. Hellweger Anzeiger (in German). Archived from the original on 4 February 2023. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  6. ^ "Contemporary Arabic Literature – Writing the Two Sudans. Sabah Sanhouri: Paradise / Stella Gaitano: The Return". international literature festival berlin. Archived from the original on 18 August 2022. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
  7. ^ "Lesung unterm Schirm – mit Stella Gaitano" [Reading under the umbrella – with Stella Gaitano]. PEN-Zentrum Deutschland (in German). 2 July 2023. Archived from the original on 28 September 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  8. ^ "Book review: Stella Gitanoʹs "Withered Flowers": Mapping an unknown world – Qantara.de". 4 August 2020. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  9. ^ a b Lynx Qualey, Marcia (20 October 2018). "Review: Stella Gitano's 'Withered Flowers'". & Arablit. Archived from the original on 22 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  10. ^ Lynx Qualey, Marcia (12 October 2018). "Book review: Stella Gitanoʹs "Withered Flowers": Mapping an unknown world". Qantara.de – Dialogue with the Islamic World. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
  11. ^ "Contemporary Arabic Literature – Writing the Two Sudans. Sabah Sanhouri: Paradise / Stella Gaitano: The Return". international literature festival berlin. Archived from the original on 18 August 2022. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  12. ^ Banipal. "Sudanese Literature Today". banipal.co.uk. Archived from the original on 26 November 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  13. ^ a b "The Rally of the Sixth of April | Magazine | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 1 January 2023. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  14. ^ Lynx Qualey, Marcia (6 November 2019). "Stella Gaitano, Ibrahim El-Salahi's Prison Notebook, and Sudanese Uprisings". arablit.org. Archived from the original on 30 October 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  15. ^ Peterson, Angeline (15 June 2020). "Stella Gaitano Eddo's Souls is First South Sudanese Novel to Win PEN Translates Award". brittlepaper.com. Archived from the original on 18 August 2022. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  16. ^ Shammat, Lemya (17 June 2020). "'Eddo's Souls': A Novel of Motherhood and Fragmentation in Sudan and South Sudan". ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly. Archived from the original on 18 September 2020. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
  17. ^ Lynx Qualey, Marcia (15 January 2024). "Sudanese literature: Stella Gaitano's debut novel "Edo's Souls" plunges deep into Sudanese history | Qantara.de". qantara.de. Archived from the original on 27 January 2024. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
  18. ^ Gaitano, Stella (2018). The return: short stories; translated by Asha El-Said. Rafiki for Printing & Publishing. OCLC 1229999547.
  19. ^ Gaetano, Stella. "I kill myself and rejoice!". The Niles. Archived from the original on 20 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  20. ^ "Nouvelles du Soudan". editions-magellan.com. Archived from the original on 1 July 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  21. ^ Lynx Qualey, Marcia (15 January 2024). "Sudanese literature: Stella Gaitano's debut novel "Edo's Souls" plunges deep into Sudanese history | Qantara.de". qantara.de. Archived from the original on 27 January 2024. Retrieved 24 January 2024.

Further reading

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  • Al-Malik, A., Gaetano, S., Adam, H., Baraka, S. A., Karamallah, A., Mamoun, R., & Luffin, X. (2009). Nouvelles du Soudan. Paris: Magellan & Cie. (in French)
  • Sudanese literature today. London: Banipal magazine. 2016. ISBN 978-0-9574424-7-4. OCLC 951463818.
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