JANE LABOUS

Jane Labous is a journalist, and author of two novels, The Chameleon Girl (Farafina Books, 2022) and Past Participle (Afsana Press, 2023).

 

Jane read French and English at Oxford University, before working for the UK and international press, and INGOs, most often out of Senegal, West Africa. 

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Jane is known for her frontline coverage of human rights and gender issues, always telling the powerful human stories behind the social, humanitarian and political headlines. This while developing her creative art as a writer, filmmaker and novelist, drawing on her insider knowledge of the aid sector and foreign journalism, and her unique experience of both expat and family life in Ngor, Senegal.

 

Jane's wide-ranging credits include Geographical, The Sunday Times, The LA Times and Voice Of America, the BBC and BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent. She has also worked as a writer and filmmaker for aid/humanitarian agencies including the UN, the World Health Organisation, Save The Children, Plan International and Amnesty International.

Jane's awards include the BBC Radio 4 and Royal Geographical Society Journey of a Lifetime Award, the Merck More than a Mother Media Recognition & Film Award for Francophone African Countries, a European Journalism Centre Development Reporting Grant, and Best Documentary at the Southampton Film Festival, for her documentary project, Angels. Her fiction has been longlisted for the Bath Novel Prize and the Santa Fé Writers' Project Literary Award

 

As a devoted single parent, Jane often writes stories, characters and locations to honour her wonderful daughter, who is half-Senegalese, reflecting their own diverse family experience. 

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