Tanella Boni

Tanella Boni is a poet, novelist, essayist, and philosopher, born in the Ivory Coast in 1954. 

The author of more than twenty books, including the collections There where it’s so bright in me (University of Nebraska Press, 2022) and The future has an appointment with the dawn (University of Nebraska Press, 2018), both translated by Todd Fredson, Boni has received prizes from the Geneva International Book and Press Fair, L’Académie Française, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In 2025, she was the recipient of the Tchicaya U Tam’si Prize for African Poetry, one of the most prestigious literary distinctions bestowed in Africa. 

Boni died on September 15, 2026, in Toulouse, France.