Mona's debut novel ONE STRING GUITAR takes us on an odyssey of survival, love and redemption from the Black Hills of South Dakota on the Pine Ridge reservation during the Wounded Knee siege in 1973 to the land of a thousand hills in Rwanda, during the genocide of 1994. One String Guitar follows Owl and Francine, a Native American man and an African woman, whose lives will intersect in a journey about belonging, the nature of evil and the possibility for renewal, even after the unthinkable has happened. 

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Recent Awards

ONE STRING GUITAR is a semi-finalist for VCU Cabell First Novelist Award.
It was published by Harvard Square Editions on November 17, 2016.

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Her memoir KING LEOPOLD'S DAUGHTER is a finalist for Restless Books New Immigrant Writing Prize, 2017. 

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About the Author

Of mixed Belgian and African descent, Mona grew up in Brussels and later moved to the United States where she taught writing at the State University of New York (Oswego & Polytechnic Institute). Her work explores the role of the ‘other’ in the marginalized voices of our world. She is currently at work on QUEST FOR LIGHT a memoir about rescuing her brother in Mexico from a traumatic brain injury and her quest for the healing of her family. Mona now lives in Southern California with her family. 

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