Fiston Mwanza Mujila

Fiston Mwanza Mujila, born 1981 in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, writes poetry, prose and plays. He studied literature in his home town and after stops in Belgium, France and Germany came to Graz, Austria, as the city’s official writer in residence. He now lives there and works as a teacher at the university while working on his doctorate on African literature. His first publications were books of poems, but his breakthrough came with the publication of his first novel “Tram 83” (Zsolnay, 2016), for which he has won many awards including the Grand Prix du Premier Roman from the Société des Gens de Lettres and the International Literature Prize of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt.
Fiston frequently takes the stage in a performative dialogue together with jazz musicians and other artists. Most recently, he has been tracking the Black poets of Europe as a kind of cartographer and has curated an anthology featuring more than 30 poets from the Black Diaspora, which is forthcoming from the Verlag Das Wunderhorn in Summer 2021.

Publications (selection):
Tram 83. Zsolnay, 2016.
Kin kiesse, les écritures congolaises. Éditions Sépia, 2015.
Tram 83. Roman. Éditions Métailié, 2014.
Der Fluss im Bauch. Ed. Thanhäuser, 2013.
Craquelures. Gedichte. L’Arbre à paroles, 2011.
Poèmes et rêvasseries. Linkgua Ediciones, 2008.