About Anna Dao:
A student and a teacher of Mali Ancestral Oral Tradition, and Philosophy of Life, Anna Dao was born in Paris and spent her formative years in Mali, France, New York, Belgium, Canada with her father a diplomat from Mali. She completed her education in Canada and for several years afterwards lived in Mali, working for various United Nations agencies. During this period, she produced and hosted a public-affairs talk show in French, Affaires Publiques, and wrote a column for a weekly newspaper, Le Républicain. She immigrated to the United States in 1993.
Anna received Honorable Mention in the inspirational Writing Category from Writer’s Digest for How Did It All Begin? The Story of the Universe According to Ancient Malian Tradition.
Her short story, A Perfect Wife, was selected by the University of Florida for inclusion in an African Humanities course. The story was also published in Opening Spaces: An Anthology of Contemporary African Women’s Writing and Women Writing Africa 2: West Africa and the Sahel. Originally written in English, the story was also translated into French.
Anna lives in New York. Finding Lalla’s Anna is her first book.
She is currently working on her next non-fiction book – a collaboration with a fellow artist who was shaped by his Haitian grandmother. The work in progress is tentatively titled: Life Lessons from our Grandmothers: Baba and Lalla. You can find more about Anna Dao on her website.
What inspires you to write?
Lalla, my maternal grandmother and our love story. She was my guiding light – the one who always saw the good in me, even when I couldn't. It is thanks to her love and guidance through my hardest and darkest times that I finally emerged and became what she always hoped I would be: Unapologetically Me. Our conversations and the lessons learned are what made me want to write Finding Lalla's Anna.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
Toni Morrison; Yuval Noah Harari; Marcel Griaule (French); Germaine Dieterlen (French); Amadou Hampaté Bah (Mali); Martin Lings; René Guénon (French); Kahlil Gibran; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; Ta-Nehisi Coates
Tell us about your writing process.
Prayer. Unyielding commitment to my truth no matter how uncomfortable it may be. I am a seat of the pants writer. I usually have an idea of the story I want to tell. The beginning and the end of the story always seem to come first. Then the question: how do I connect the dots to make it a complete story? That's when prayer followed by a little procrastination come in. But I never let an unfinished story sit more than two days. Regardless of how uninspired I might feel. I will sit in front of the computer read and reread my work until I can figure out how to make it work. Sometimes it frustrating because ideas don't come easy. But no matter how desperate I get at times, in the end, the story comes together and is complete.
What advice would you give other writers?
Tell your truth. Be authentic. If your words speak to you, they will speak to someone else.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I am a first-time author. I went with a Hybrid publishing company because I didn't want to self-publish, and the major publishing companies were not necessarily interested in a first-time author, no matter how compelling her story might be. I have no regrets. I got published by a company who understood my story and made it better.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I believe authors will have to take more responsibility, and be more involved with all the business aspects of writing: marketing, publishing, reading, etc.
What genres do you write?: Nonfiction and fiction
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Anna Dao Home Page Link
Link To Anna Dao Page On Amazon
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
