Landa Wo

Landa Wo is an Angolan-French poet. Born in 1972 in Saint-Etienne (France) he is a graduate of the French education system. He was forced to leave his native country in 1999 for a ten-year exile, his status as one of the so-called “visible minorities” making it difficult for him to find work. Meanwhile, Yeats’ Ireland had become the Celtic Tiger and offered more career opportunities to graduates, especially to those from a minority group who were denied them in France. Wo has used his writing both as a tool to integrate into Irish society, and as a weapon. He has won numerous awards such as 1st prize in Metro Éireann Writing Competition (2007) and the Eist Poetry competition (2006), as well as 3rd place in the French section of the international poetry competition, Féile Filíochta (2005). His imagination is coloured by twenty years’ experience of life in Gabon and in Congo. He is a member of the European Academy of Poetry.