Igiaba Scego

Igiaba Scego (born 20 March 1974 in Rome) is an Italian writer, journalist, and activist of Somali origin.
Biography.
Scego's father was a prominent Somali politician. She graduated in Foreign Literature at La Sapienza University of Rome and obtained a PhD in pedagogy at Roma Tre University. Presently, she is writing about and researching cultural dialogue and migration.
Works.
She writes for various magazines dealing with migrant literature and African literature, such as "Latinoamerica", "Carta", "El Ghibli" and "Migra". 
Her works include autobiographical references, and they depict the delicate balance between her two cultural realities, the Italian and Somali.
In 2003, she won the Eks & Tra prize for migrant writers with her story "Salsicce", and published her debut novel, "La nomade che amava Alfred Hitchcock". 
In 2006 she attended the Literature festival in Mantua.
Scego collaborates with newspapers such as "La Repubblica" and "Il manifesto" and contributes to the magazine Nigrizia with an opinion column, titled "The colors of Eve".
In 2007, along with Ingy Mubiayi, she edited the short story collection "Quando nasci è una roulette. Giovani figli di migranti si raccontano". It follows the story of seven boys and girls of African origin, who were born in Rome of foreign parents or came to Italy when young. In 2011, she won the "Premio Mondello" with her book "La mia casa è dove sono", which was published the previous year by Rizzoli.
In 2017, her book "Adua" was translated into English by Jamie Richards, and in 2019, Aaron Robertson translated her book "Oltre Babilonia", again into English, with the title "Beyond Babylon".
Her 2020 novel, "La linea del colore", combines the characters of Edmonia Lewis and Sarah Parker Remond and is dedicated to Rome and to these two African-American women who lived in 19th-century Rome.