Albert Russo

Albert Russo who has published worldwide over 85 books of poetry, fiction and essays (35) and photography (50), in both English and French, his two mother tongues, and sometimes in Italian, (Italian being his 'paternal' tongue) - he also speaks Spanish and German and still has notions of Swahili -, is the recipient of many awards,such as The New York Poetry Forum and Amelia (CA) Awards, The American Society of Writers Fiction Award, The British Diversity Short Story Award, The AZsacra international Poetry Award (Taj Mahal Review - US$ 500), the Books & Authors Award, several Writer’s Digest poetry and fiction Awards (winner and finalist), aquillrelle Awards, the Prix Colette and the Prix de la Liberté, among others. His work has been translated into about 15 languages in 25 countries, on the five continents. He has co-published Gaytude with Adam Donaldson Powell, which won Best Gay Book in the USA. Albert Russo’s major books are the AFRICAN QUATUOR (AQ), his memoir CALL ME CHAMELEON (CMC), his humorous ZAPINETTE Series (Zapy), GOSH ZAPINETTE, the first ever series of global Jewish humor, his books of stories and of poetry encompassing 40 years of writing, entitled: THE CROWDED WORLD OF SOLITUDE, vol. 1 - CWS1 (the stories and essays) received an Honorable Mention from the Writer’s Digest 2005 International Book Awards and THE CROWDED WORLD OF SOLITUDE, vol. 2 (the poems) CWS2 + the two big books dedicated to his beloved mother Sarah Russo (SR) + about 50 books of photos. His definitive biography penned by the Norwegian African-American writer, poet and artist Adam Donaldson Powell, UNDER THE SHIRTTAILS OF ALBERT RUSSO was released by l’Aleph (November 2017), Wisehouse Publishing. Holyland Zapinette published in Hebrew, novel (2019), Mémoires d’un fils de nazis, novel (2019). SPEAK TO ME, MOTHER BELOVED (2019) is Albert Russo’s new book dedicated to his adored mother and to POETRY, with about 140 poems and as many photos in both black and white and in color, that he took along the years on the four continents in which he has resided and during his travels around the world.

A humanist with roots in Central, Southern Africa, and the Mediterranean, Albert Russo has been acclaimed by James Baldwin, Edmund White, Martin Tucker, Douglas Parmee of Oxford University, Joseph Kessel, Pierre Emmanuel, both of the Académie Française, among many other literary authorities, as well as by his African peers, Chinua Achebe among them. Albert Russo was also a member of the 1996 jury for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature which often leads to the Nobel Prize of Literature. Latest Prize: Best 2013 Unicef Short Story award in defense of childhood worldwide, for Revenge by proxy / Vengeance par procuration. He has received the 2018 Book Excellence Award for his book series of global humor GOSH ZAPINETTE! and the Unicef 2018 award for the body of his poems. 2019 Book Excellence Award Honoree for his memoir CALL ME CHAMELEON.

Albert Russo’s 50-odd books of photography have garnered awards in the USA, UK, Russia, France, including Photography Vibes certificate of excellence 2009, Artavita certificate of excellence 2020. Some of his novels and memoirs have also been filmed in English, with videos 90 and some of his work has been exhibited in the Louvre Museum, at the Espace Pierre Cardin, both in Paris, in Times Square, New York, at the Museum of Photography in Lausanne, Switzerland, in Art Berlin, in Tokyo, in Moscow, etc. The former Mayor of the Big Apple, Mr. Bloomberg, has lauded his two photobooks on Paris and New York. Some of his novels and memoirs have also been filmed in English, with videos 90 and 100 minutes long.

Websites: www.albertrusso.com - www.viewbug.com/member/albertrusso - https://www.artavita.com/artists/7612-albert-russo -

Having lived on 4 continents: Africa (Central, eastern and southern Africa), North America (USA), Europe (Belgium, Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland) and Asia Minor (Israel), I write historical and autobiographical novels set in all these places, in both English and French (which are my two 'mother tongues'), also poeaking fluently Italian, Spanish and German, with a basic understanding of Swahili and Portuguese.

I'm particularly interested in having the distorted history of the former Belgian territories in Africa corrected. All is not Black and all is not White, as many so-called historians try to prove. The same appies to reporters of media such as the BBC, CNN, Le Monde, and even Belgian newspapers that have a strong ideological twist.