Ondjaki

Ndalu de Almeida (born in 1977) is a writer from Angola, writing under the pen name Ondjaki. He lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and has written poetry, children's books, short stories, novels, drama and film scripts.

Ondjaki studied sociology at the University of Lisbon, and wrote his thesis about Angolan writer Luandino Vieira. His literary debut came in 2000 with the poetry book Actu Sanguíneu, which was followed up with the childhood memoir Bom dia camaradas (”Good Morning, Comrades”) in 2001. To date (2010) he has published five novels, three collections of short stories, four collections of poetry and three children's books. He has also made a documentary film, May Cherries Grow, about his native city. His books have been translated to French, Spanish, Italian, German, Serbian, English, Polish and Swedish. Granma Nineteen and the Soviet's Secrets is his most recent book in English (Spring 2014, from Biblioasis).

In 2008 Ondjaki was awarded the Grinzane for Africa Prize in the category of Best Young Writer. In 2012, he was named by Zukiswa Wanner in The Guardian as one of the "top five African writers" (alongside Léonora Miano, H. J. Golakai, Chika Unigwe and Thando Mgqolozana). He is one of 39 writers aged under 40 from sub-Saharan Africa who in April 2014 were chosen as part of the Hay Festival's prestigious Africa39 project.

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