A humanist with roots in Central, Southern Africa, and the Mediterranean, Albert Russo has been acclaimed by authors, such as James Baldwin, Edmund White, Martin Tucker, Douglas Parmee of Oxford University, Adam Donaldson Powell, David Alexander, Richard Mathews, Joseph Kessel, Pierre Emmanuel, and Jean d'Ormesson, all three of the Académie Française, as well as by his African peers, Chinua Achebe and Maurice AMURI Mpala-Lutebele (University of Lubumbashi, DR Congo). His seminal work, the AFRICAN QUATUOR, set in DR Congo, Rwanda and Burundi, has appeared in his own English and French versions, as well as in translations (Italian and Dutch), in over 20 editions worldwide. All in all, his work has been translated into about 15 languages. SPEAK TO ME, MOTHER BELOVED (2019) is 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 during his years on the four continents in which he has resided, and during his travels around the world. His last novel co-written with Jeanette Skirvin, TEL AVIV'S ETHIOPIAN QUEEN, was published in 2021 by l'Aleph in Sweden. His most recent French novels are MÉMOIRES D'UN FILS DE NAZIS and LE CAP DES ILLUSIONS.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. Some of the Prizes he has received are: Best 2013 Unicef Short Story award in defense of childhood worldwide, for Revenge by proxy / Vengeance par procuration; 2018 Book Excellence Award for his big book GOSH ZAPINETTE!; Unicef 2018 and 2021 awards for the body of his poems; Mémoires d'un fils de nazis, novel (2020); Prix Colette, Prix de la Liberté, and Prix Littérature Jeunesse. Here are some of his other fiction and poetry awards: The American Society of Writers Fiction Award, The British Diversity Short Story Award, several New York Poetry Forum Awards, Amelia Prose and Poetry awards. He has also been nominated for the W.B. Yeats and Robert Penn Warren poetry awards, Prix de l'Ile des poètes, Bronze medal (Monnaie de Paris) for his book Éclats de malachite. And last but not least, GAYTUDE, a book of poems in both English and French, co-written with Adam Donaldson Powell, the multi-talented poet, author, musician, painter and gay activist, was honored as Winner of the National Indie Excellence Award for the Category Gay/Lesbian Nonfiction in 2009.Albert Russo's 75-odd books of photography have garnered awards in the USA, UK, India, Russia, France, Switzerland, etc. 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. He is also known for his humorous series GOSH ZAPINETTE, published in English, French and Italian.
