Luc Degla: Author and Storyteller with esprit!

As a writer Luc Degla grants, among others insights into the lives of Africans in Germany - their sorrows, their joys and their survival mechanisms.  He jokingly takes his readers into a world between Africa and Europe, without sparing them a critical confrontation with the topic of immigration and integration. A witty but honest intercultural dialogue. However Luc Degla studied and holds a degree in mechanical engineering.
The 45-year-old Luc Degla was born in Benin, West Africa. His father was a math teacher and his mother was an elementary school teacher, thus mingling with books was nothing new to him at an early age. As a kid he would get applause from his family and friends for being a good storyteller. 

After graduating from College Polytechnique Coulibaly Cotonou, Benin, he studied mathematics for two years at the Calavi University in Benin before moving to Moscow, then in the Soviet Union, to study mechanical engineering. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he moved to Germany to continue his studies. He graduated as an industrial engineer in mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Braunschweig. During his studies he became more socially active as a member of various associations and committees in the city. He was chairman of the African Students Association. However, the music bar "Burundi Black"  Dibbesdorf, Brunswick, where he worked for 12 years, served as his key literary laboratory.

As a writer he worked as a columnist for the Braunschweig city magazine "Da Capo". His first book, "Das Africanische Auge - The African Eye", was published 2006 successfully sold 2000 copies. His collection of poem "Frechheiten" followed in 2007.

After graduating from university, Luc Degla received a work permit restricted to his field of study. Without a stable job or  money to start a firm with a minimum capital of 250 000 Euros or atleast 10 full time employed workers, as stipulated by the law, he had to leave the country. He returned to Benin, where he found no suitable job. Nonetheless he did not bail out and established a company in Cotonou that among other things, provides roadside assistance to car drivers.

2008, Mr. Degla decided to compliment mechanical engineering with full time writing. Since then, he wrote guides which address social problems.

 "Airbags gegen die Fremdenfeindlichkeit" A memoir on Xenophobia

"Frechheiten"  a collection of cheeky short poems by Luc Degla. These poems revolve around life, love, women, home, nature and always about relationships. A smooth read which leaves its reader with a smile

"Dein neues Leben": a guide to life as a foreign student in Germany.

"Das afrikanische Auge" a collection of short stories in which an African student recognizes the reality of life in "actually existing socialism", and the life in the West and reflects the conditions in his African homeland, Benin. He tells stories which render their reader speechless and sometimes the reader is left with the laughter stuck in his throat.

Over the years, he has held numerous lectures and readings in schools, universities, festivals and German embassies.

In 2010 he was honored with the MAY AYIM Literature Prize.