Born in Lomé, Togo, in 1966, Kangni Alem is a writer, translator and literary critic, playwright, art collector and exhibition curator, director of the "Atelier Théâtre de Lomé" founded by him in 1989. He has received numerous awards, including the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire for his book Cola Cola jazz, the Tchicaya U'Tamsi Prize of the Concours Théâtral Interafricain for his play Chemins de Croix and more recently the 3rd Prize of the Williams Sassine Literary Prize for his short story Une histoire américaine. He is an associate researcher at the CELFA (Centre d'Études Linguistiques et Littéraires Francophones et Africaines) at the University of Bordeaux III and is currently editor-in-chief of the review Notre Librairie and translator of the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa. Kangni Alem is a lecturer in comparative literature and theatre pedagogy at the University of Lomé. He directs the professional Master's programme, and has been working for the last few years on the mediation between literature, visual arts and performance.