A bilingual author and photographer - English and French are his two ‘mother tongues’ -, raised in Central and Southern Africa, Albert Russo is the recipient of many awards, such as The American Society of Writers Fiction Award, The British Diversity Short Story Award, New York Poetry Forum Awards, and the Prix Colette, among others. Praised by James Baldwin and Edmund White, among other writers. His work has been translated in a dozen languages. His award-winning African novels and his hilarious Zapinette series have appeared on both sides of the Atlantic. He is a member of the jury for the Prix Européen and sat on the panel of the prestigious Neustadt Prize for Literature, which often leads to the Nobel Prize. In 2007 he obtained two important American awards, from Writers' Digest, for his collection of short stories, THE CROWDED WORLD OF SOLITUDE, volume one, and from USAbooknews in the National Best Books 2007 Awards, for his novel SHALOM TOWER SYNDROME.