Sarah Ardizzone

Sarah Ardizzone is an award-winning translator of voices from across the French-speaking world. Her work spans literary fiction for all ages, as well as memoir, hip-hop lyrics, graphic novels and picture books. Her time in Marseille led to a special interest in sharp dialogue and multi-heritage slang. Authors include Gaël Faye, Faïza Guène, Alain Mabanckou, Daniel Pennac, Yasmina Reza and Alexandre Dumas. Sarah also develops multilingual ‘out of the book’ performances with the Edinburgh International Book Festival – most recently touring Algeria with the Good Chance Theatre production of Faïza Guène’s Discretion. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Sarah translated Gaël Faye’s novel Petit Pays from French into English and it was published as Small Country by Hogarth Penguin in 2018. 

Gaël Faye is a Rwandan-French singer, songwriter, rapper, and writer. Petit Pays is his award-winning novel inspired by his teenage-years’ experience of the war in Burundi and it was first published in France in 2016. It has been translated in 36 languages and a film adaptation was released in 2020. 

Sarah Ardizzone’s attendance at West Cork Literary Festival is supported by Literature Ireland