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On Sunday September 17, Naivo, author of Beyond the Rice Fields, will appear at the Brooklyn Book Festival for an event with authors Peter Kimani and Avinuo Kire. Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf will moderate.

Naivoharisoa Patrick Ramamonjisoa, who goes by the pen name Naivo, has worked as a journalist in his home country of Madagascar and as a teacher in Paris. His first novel, Beyond the Rice Fields, was published in its French original version in March 2012 by Éditions Sépia in Paris. This work, which describes the violent cultural clash and mass killings that arose in the early nineteenth-century Madagascar in reaction to the arrival of British missionaries and the rise of Christianity, is the first Malagasy novel ever translated into English. Naivo is also the author of several short stories, including “Dahalo,” which received the RFI/ACCT prize in 1996, and “Iarivomandroso,” which was adapted for a theatrical production in Antananarivo, Madagascar.  He recently released a short story collection entitled “Madagascar entre poivre et vanille,” which explores various topics pertaining to contemporary Madagascar including the socialist era, the recurrent political coups, the corruption of the judiciary system, and the monarchic and colonial resurgences.

Peter Kimani is an award-winning journalist and author of Dance of the Jakaranda, Before The Rooster Crows and Upside Down. He is the founding faculty member at the Aga Khan University’s Graduate School of Media and Communications in Nairobi, Kenya. His work has also appeared in The Guardian, The New African, the Standard, the Daily Nation and Sky News, among others. A leading African writer of his generation, Kimani was one of three international poets commissioned by NPR to compose and present a poem marking Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Avinuo Kire is a writer and teacher from Nagaland, located in the North East of India. She has contributed to various literary journals and anthologies. Kire has authored The Power to Forgive and Other Stories, a collection of short fiction stories and a volume of poetry titled Where Wildflowers Grow. She has also co-authored Naga Heritage Centre: People Stories- Volume One, an anthology of documented oral narratives from Nagaland. She is currently Assistant Professor of English at a local college in Kohima, Nagaland.

Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf is the Director of Public Programs at PEN America. She has a decade of experience in curating public arts and educational programs. Formerly, as the Manager of Public Programs at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, she produced a year-round schedule of 60-80 events and oversaw audience development, public engagement strategies, and cultural community partnerships. She launched the Center’s innovative digital programming strategy with groundbreaking conversations on contemporary social justice issues with leading edge writers, artists, and scholars.

The Brooklyn Book Festival is the largest free literary event in New York, presenting an array of national and international literary stars and emerging authors. One of America’s premier book festivals, this smart and diverse gathering attracts thousands of book lovers of all ages to enjoy the festival’s lively literary marketplace.

Where: 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11201 

When: Sunday, September 17, 2017 at 11:00am