Kola Boof

Biography

Kola Boof was born in 1969 in Omdurman, Sudan. After her adoption in 1979, she relocated to Washington, D.C where she was a Psychiatric Out-Patient until she was 17. Novelist and poet, she is the author of the poetry collection “Every Little Bit Hurts” (1995), which has been regarded as a provocative work of art for its political and sexual connotations. Her work is known to explore religion, the sexuality of African women, the treatment of women in Islamic countries, and Sudanese cultural history. Her essay “I Am My Own Daughter” won the Swedish Woman to Woman Literary Award in 2007. Over the years, there have been controversies surrounding her involvement in international politics and diplomatic relations, and Boof’s writings have served as ways of activism and a means to render her own account.

Birth Date

1969-01-01

Place of Birth

Egyptian, Sudanese, American

Country of Nationality

Sudan, United States

Languages Spoken

Egyptian Arabic (timas dialect), English, Dutch, Swedish, Greek [*some Oromo, Nobbin]

Poetry Collections

Every Little Bit Hurts (Rubble Women, UK Lesbian group--1995); Flesh and the Devil (Russom Damba, Rabat, Morocco, 2010)
Long Train to the Redeeming Sin (originally titled "The Goddess Flower"--Russom Damba, North Africa & UK--Zelle's in Israel1998)
Diary of a Lost Girl: Autobiography (UK, Door of Kush, 2003. Released in USA 2006)
Virgins In the Beehive (Atlantic Library, Virgin Islands, Washington D.C., 2010)
Sexy Part of the Bible (Akashic Books, Brooklyn, New York, 2011)

Sources

Salamon, Julie. “Fatwa Victim or a Fraud?: Mystery Enshrouds Kola Boof.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Dec. 2002, https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/11/books/fatwa-victim-or-a-fraud-mystery-enshrouds-kola-boof-writer-and-internet-persona.html. Accessed 1 April 2022. Kleinman, Loren. “Writing That Imagines What It's like to Be: A Review of Kola Boof's Selected Works.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 24 Aug. 2014, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/writing-that-imagines-wha_b_5525052. Accessed 1 April 2022. “Kola Boof.” TransgressiveFiction.info, Transgressive Fiction, https://transgressivefiction.info/kola-boof/. Accessed 1 April 2022. “Kola Boof.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Feb. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Boof. Accessed 1 April 2022. “Nile River Woman: The Very First Poems by Kola Boof.” ThriftBooks, ThriftBooks, https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/nile-river-woman-the-very-first-poems-by-kola-boof_kola-boof/668742/#edition=7050404. Accessed 1 April 2022.