Tanella Boni

• Name — Tanella Boni • Birth Name — Tanella Suzanne Boni • Born — 1954 • Died — 15 September 2026 • Place of death — Toulouse, France • Occupation — Poet, novelist and academic • Education — University of Paris

Tanella Boni was born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, where she was educated to high-school level, before going on to further university studies in Toulouse, France, and at the University of Paris, obtaining a PhD. She subsequently became Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cocody-Abidjan (now the University of Félix Houphouët-Boigny), as well as writing poetry, novels, short stories, criticism, and children's literature. She served as President of the Writers' Association of Ivory Coast from 1991 to 1997 and organized Abidjan's International Poetry Festival from 1998 to 2002. During the political strife in Ivory Coast (from 2002 until 2011) she self-exiled to France. In 2005, she received the Ahmadou Kourouma Prize for her novel Matins de couvre-feu (Mornings after curfew). In 2009, she won the Antonio Viccaro International Poetry Prize. From 2013, Boni divided her time between Abidjan and Paris. She was a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.