Wikipedia

Dinaw Mengestu

Dinaw Mengestu(ዲናው መንግስቱ)(born 30 June 1978) is anEthiopian Americannovelist and writer. In addition to three novels, he has written forRolling Stoneon thewar in Darfur,and forJane Magazineon the conflict in northernUganda.[1]His writing has also appeared inHarper's Magazine,The Wall Street Journal,and numerous other publications.

Dinaw Mengestu
Dinaw Mengestu in March 2014
Dinaw Mengestu in March 2014
Born(1978-06-30)June 30, 1978(age 46)
Addis Ababa,Ethiopia
OccupationNovelist, professor of creative writing
NationalityAmerican
EducationGeorgetown University(BA)
Columbia University(MFA)
Literary movementRealism,postmodernism
Notable awardsMacArthur Fellow,5 under 35 honoree

He is the Program Director of Written Arts atBard College.[2]In 2007 theNational Book Foundationnamed him a "5 under 35" honoree. Since his first book was published in 2007, he has received numerous literary awards, and was selected as aMacArthur Fellowin 2012.[3]

Early life

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Dinaw Mengestu was born inAddis Ababa,Ethiopiain 1978, during a period of political repression that became known as theRed Terror.His father, who was an executive with Ethiopian Airlines, applied for political asylum while on a business trip in Italy; Mengestu's mother was pregnant with him at the time. Two years later, when Mengestu was a toddler, he, his mother and his sister were reunited with his father in the United States.[4]The family settled inPeoria, Illinois,where Mengestu's father at first worked as a factory laborer, before rising to a management position.[4]Later the family moved to the Chicago area, where Mengestu graduated fromFenwick High SchoolinOak Park, Illinois.[5]

Mengestu received his B.A. in English fromGeorgetown University,and hisMFAin writing fromColumbia Universityin 2005.[6]

Career

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Mengestu'sdébut novel,The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears,was published in the United States in March 2007 byRiverhead Books.It was published in the United Kingdom asChildren of the Revolution,[7]issued in May 2007 byJonathan Cape.It tells the story of Sepha Stephanos, who fled the warfare of theEthiopian Revolution17 years before and immigrated to the United States. He owns and runs a failing grocery store inLogan Circle,then a poor African-American section ofWashington, D.C.that is becoming gentrified. He and two fellow African immigrants, all of them single, deal with feelings of isolation and nostalgia for home. Stephanos becomes involved with a white woman and her daughter, who move into a renovated house in the neighborhood.

Mengestu's second novel,How to Read the Air,was published in October 2010.[8]Part of the novel was excerpted in the July 12, 2010, issue ofThe New Yorker,after Mengestu was selected as one of their "20 under 40" writers of 2010.[9]This novel was also the winner of the 2011Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence,a literary award established by theBaton Rouge Area Foundationin 2007.[10]

Mengestu's first two novels have been translated into more than a dozen languages.[7]

In 2014, he was selected for theHay Festival'sAfrica39project as one of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with the potential and the talent to define the trends of the region.[11]

Awards and honors

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Literary honors

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  • New York TimesNotable Book 2007

Literary awards

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Year Book Award Category Result Ref
2007 The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle Roman Shortlisted
Guardian First Book Award — Won [12]
Prix du Premier Roman Étranger Won
Prix Femina étranger — Longlisted
2008 Dylan Thomas Prize — Shortlisted [13]
Los Angeles TimesBook Prize Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction Won [14]
Young Lions Fiction Award — Shortlisted [15]
2011 How to Read the Air Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence — Won [16]
— Vilcek Prize Creative Promise in Literature Won [17]

Honors

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Bibliography

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Books

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  • —— (2007).The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears(1st ed.). New York: Riverhead Books.ISBN9781594489402.[19]
  • —— (2010).How to Read the Air.Penguin.ISBN9781594487705.
  • —— (2014).All Our Names.Knopf.ISBN9780385349987.
  • —— (2024).Someone Like Us(hardcover 1st ed.). Knopf.ISBN9780385350006.

Essays

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  • —— (Autumn 2009)."Big money".Granta(108): 135–149.

Free reading

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References

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  1. ^Mengestu, Dinaw (7 September 2006)."The Tragedy of Darfur".Rolling Stone.Archived fromthe originalon 14 January 2009.
  2. ^Relations, Bard Public."Award-Winning Writer Dinaw Mengestu Named John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor in the Humanities at Bard College".bard.edu.Retrieved2023-07-25.
  3. ^"2012 MacArthur Foundation 'Genius Grant' Winners".AP. 1 October 2012. Archived fromthe originalon 2 October 2012.Retrieved1 October2012.
  4. ^ab"Dinaw Mengestu."Contemporary Black Biography.Vol. 66. Gale, 2008. Retrieved viaGale In Context: Biographydatabase, 17 August 2019.
  5. ^Thomas, Mike (October 20, 2012)."Writer's long road to 'genius' is a story of overcoming racism".Chicago Sun Times.Archived fromthe originalon September 28, 2013.Retrieved22 October2012.
  6. ^"Dinaw Mengestu"(alumnus profile). Columbia University School of the Arts. arts.columbia.edu. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  7. ^ab"Dinaw Mengestu".Hodder & Stoughton. hodder.co.uk. Archived fromthe originalon 3 March 2016.
  8. ^"Two Riverhead Authors: Dinaw Mengestu and Salvatore Scibona Make the New Yorker's 20 under 40 Fiction Writers to Watch"Archived2010-06-19 at theWayback Machine,Riverhead Books
  9. ^"The New Yorker Excerpts Dinaw Mengestu's Forthcoming Novel 'How to Read the Air'"Archived2011-07-15 at theWayback Machine,Riverhead Books
  10. ^Hatley, James."Making Gaines"Archived2014-06-06 at theWayback Machine,"225", Louisiana, 22 May 2012.
  11. ^Africa39,Hay Festival.
  12. ^"Guardian first book award: all the winners".The Guardian.2016-04-07.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved2024-10-05.
  13. ^Flood, Alison (September 16, 2008)."Young literary stars contend for £60,000 award".The Guardian.Archivedfrom the original on October 27, 2014.RetrievedNovember 11,2012.
  14. ^"2007 L.A. Times Book Prize - First Fiction Winner and Nominees".Awards Archive.2020-07-03.Archivedfrom the original on 2022-03-16.Retrieved2022-03-16.
  15. ^"Young Lions Award List of Winners and Finalists".The New York Public Library.Retrieved2024-10-05.
  16. ^Wendland, Tegan (2012-01-25)."Dinaw Mengestu Wins Ernest Gaines Literary Award".WRKF.Retrieved2023-08-12.
  17. ^"The Vilcek Foundation -".vilcek.org.Archived fromthe originalon 2016-03-05.Retrieved2015-11-12.
  18. ^Jennifer L. Knox,"20 under 40: Q. & A. | Dinaw Mengestu",The New Yorker,14 & 21 June 2010.
  19. ^Published in the UK asChildren of the revolution(2008).
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