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On Thursday November 2, Naivo, author of Beyond the Rice Fields, will appear for a public conversation moderated by Tracy O'Neill at Community Bookstore in Brooklyn. Beyond the Rice Fields, which describes the violent cultural clash and mass killings that occurred in early 19th century Madagascar in reaction to the arrival of British missionaries, is the first Malagasy novel ever translated into English.

The event is co-presented by Words Without Borders.

Naivoharisoa Patrick Ramamonjisoa, who goes by the pen name Naivo, has worked as a journalist in his home country of Madagascar and as a teacher in Paris. His first novel, Beyond the Rice Fields, was published in its French original version in March 2012 by Éditions Sépia in Paris. This work, which describes the violent cultural clash and mass killings that arose in the early nineteenth-century Madagascar in reaction to the arrival of British missionaries and the rise of Christianity, is the first Malagasy novel ever translated into English. Naivo is also the author of several short stories, including “Dahalo,” which received the RFI/ACCT prize in 1996, and “Iarivomandroso,” which was adapted for a theatrical production in Antananarivo, Madagascar.  He recently released a short story collection entitled “Madagascar entre poivre et vanille,” which explores various topics pertaining to contemporary Madagascar including the socialist era, the recurrent political coups, the corruption of the judiciary system, and the monarchic and colonial resurgences.

Tracy O'Neill is the author of The Hopeful, one of Electric Literature's Best Novels of 2015. She was named a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, long-listed for the Flaherty-Dunnan Prize, and was a Narrative Under 30 finalist. Her writing has appeared in Granta, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, the New Yorker, LitHub, BOMB, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Literarian, New World Writing, Narrative, Scoundrel Time, Guernica, Bookforum, Electric Literature, Grantland, Vice, The Guardian, VQR, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She holds an MFA in fiction from the City College of New York and an MA in communications from Columbia University. Tracy currently teaches at the City College of New York and is editor-in-chief of the literary journal Epiphany. 

Where: Community Bookstore, 143 Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215

When: Thursday November 2 at 7:00pm