Maryse Condé to Give Inaugural Rajat Neogy Memorial Lecture

Headshot of Maryse Conde.
Photo by Marcus Halevi

The week of events begins on Monday, April 17, with a roundtable discussion of Maryse Condé‘s SEGU.

Date/Time: April 17th, 2023, 12:00pm

Location: Hutchins Center Seminar Room, 104 Mount Auburn Street, Floor 2R, Cambridge, MA

In-person & on Zoom. Lunch will be provided.

Registration Required – CLICK HERE to register


On Wednesday, Maryse Condé will present the Inaugural Rajat Neogy Memorial Lecture

Date/Time: April 19th, 2023, 6:00pm

Location: Harvard Faculty Club Reading Room, 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA

Streaming: youtube.com/hutchinscenter


On Thursday, Maryse Condé will have a reception with students and members of the community

Date/Time: April 20th, 2023, 12:00pm

Location: Hutchins Center Seminar Room, 104 Mount Auburn Street, Floor 2R, Cambridge, MA

Lunch will be provided.


Transition Magazine will host famed novelist, playwright, and critic, Maryse Condé as its inaugural Rajat Neogy Memorial Lecturer on April 19th, 2023, 6pm, at the Harvard Faculty Club Reading Room (20 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA) and on YouTube. Please join us in person or watch the livestream HERE!

Born as Maryse Boucolon at Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, Condé later studied at the Université de Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle), eventually earning a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature in 1975.  She has lived and taught in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Virginia, New York, and California, among other places.  The author of seventeen powerfully influential novels, eight plays, and several collections of stories and essays, Condé and her writing have been awarded Le Grand Prix Littéraire de la Femme (1986); Le Prix de l’Académie française (1988); the Liberatur Prize (1988); the Puterbaugh Prize (1993); the Prix Carbet de la Caraibe (1997); the Marguerite Yourcenar Prize (1999); the Hurston & Wright Legacy Award (2005); the New Academy Prize in Literature (2018); and the Prix Mondial Cino Del Duca (2021), among many other honors.  In 2001 she was made a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.  

The Rajat Neogy Memorial Lecture honors the legacy of the Ugandan born writer and poet, Rajat Neogy, who founded Transition Magazine: An International Review in 1961.  The magazine went on to become a singularly important platform for artists and writers of Africa and the African Diaspora.  Rajat Neogy remained at the magazine’s head until 1968 when the Ugandan government jailed him for sedition after the magazine criticized the proposed constitutional reforms of President Milton Obote.  After his release, Neogy relocated to Ghana, handing the editorship of the magazine over to the Nigerian writer, Wole Soyinka, in 1973.  The journal moved to the United States in 1991 and is now published under the auspices of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University.  

The selection committee of the Rajat Neogy Memorial Lecture was unanimous in its belief that Maryse Condé would be the perfect choice as the inaugural Rajat Neogy lecturer.  The historical and thematic reach of her work, its trenchant political critique, and most especially her unceasing commitment to the liberation of all people, including Africans, people of African descent, women and girls, inspires us all.  Maryse Condé’s work marvelously continues and expands the efforts of Rajat Neogy. Transition Magazine, working in conjunction with the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, is thrilled to have an opportunity to host her in Cambridge.