Simone Atangana Bekono

Simone Atangana Bekono studied Creative Writing at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem, the Netherlands. In 2017 her poetry collection How the First Sparks Became Visible came out and was awarded the Poëziedebuutprijs Aan Zee for best first collection in 2018. The collection was published in English in the UK by Emma Press in January 2021. In both 2020 and 2021, the major Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant listed her as one of their top three literary talents to watch. Confrontations is her first novel, it was translated into English by Suzanne Heukensfeldt Jansen and published by Serpent’s Tail in January 2024.

Suzanne Heukensfeldt Jansen’s wide-ranging translation career began with comic strips for Marvel Comics whilst at college. Over the past decade or so, her focus has been on literary fiction and non-fiction. Her most recent translation is Colonial Congo – A History in Questions, a major survey of the Belgian colonial past.

Simone Atangana Bekono’s attendance at West Cork Literary Festival is supported by the Dutch Foundation for Literature/Nederlands Letterenfonds as part of their New Dutch Writing programme.