Aminatta Forna

Aminatta Forna is a novelist and memoirist. She published her debut The Devil that Danced on the Water in 2003, which tells the story of her family's move from Britain to Sierra Leone during Forna's childhood as part of the African renaissance generation, and her father's hanging on charges of treason in 1975. Her second novel, The Memory of Love (2010), was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. She was also a contributing writer on 10x10's film Girl Rising (2012), telling the story of 10 girls in developing countries and narrated by actresses including Meryl Streep, Freida Pinto and Cate Blanchett. In 2013, Forna took up a post as Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.