13 Facts About Nuruddin Farah

Nuruddin Farah was born on 24 November 1945 and is a Somali novelist.

Nuruddin Farah has written plays both for stage and radio, as well as short stories and essays.

Nuruddin Farah was born in 1945 in Baidoa, in Italian Somaliland.

Nuruddin Farah's father Hassan Farah was a merchant and interpreter and his mother Aleeli an oral poet.

Nuruddin Farah settled in independent Somalia, where he found work as a typist in the Ministry of Education.

Nuruddin Farah subsequently went to England, attending London University and studying for a master's degree in theatre at Essex University.

Nuruddin Farah's mother died in 1990, and in 1992 he married British-Nigerian academic Amina Mama and they have a son and a daughter.

Rather than return and face imprisonment, Nuruddin Farah began a self-imposed exile that would last for 22 years, during which time he taught in the United States, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Sudan, India and Nigeria.

Nuruddin Farah describes his purpose for writing as an attempt "to keep my country alive by writing about it", and for Nadine Gordimer he was one of the continent's "true interpreters".

Nuruddin Farah's reputation was cemented by his most famous novel, Maps, the first part of his "Blood in the Sun" trilogy.

Nuruddin Farah followed this with Gifts and Secrets, both of which earned awards.

Besides literature, Nuruddin Farah is an important scholar within Somali Studies.

Nuruddin Farah serves on the International Advisory Board of Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies, published by Macalester College.