Dinaw Mengestu

Early life

Dinaw Mengestu was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1978, during a period of political repression that became known as the Red 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. The family settled in Peoria, Illinois, where Mengestu's father at first worked as a factory laborer, before rising to a management position. Later the family moved to the Chicago area, where Mengestu graduated from Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Illinois.

Mengestu received his B.A. in English from Georgetown University, and his MFA in writing from Columbia University in 2005.

Career

Mengestu's début novel, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, was published in the United States in March 2007 by Riverhead Books. It was published in the United Kingdom as Children of the Revolution, issued in May 2007 by Jonathan Cape. It tells the story of Sepha Stephanos, who fled the warfare of the Ethiopian Revolution 17 years before and immigrated to the United States. He owns and runs a failing grocery store in Logan Circle, then a poor African-American section of Washington, 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. Part of the novel was excerpted in the July 12, 2010, issue of The New Yorker, after Mengestu was selected as one of their "20 under 40" writers of 2010. This novel was also the winner of the 2011 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, a literary award established by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation in 2007.

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

In 2014, he was selected for the Hay Festival's Africa39 project as one of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with the potential and the talent to define the trends of the region.

Awards and honors

Literary honors

• New York Times Notable Book 2007

Literary awards

Honors

• The New Yorker "20 Under 40", 2010
• Lannan Fiction Fellowship, 2007
• National Book Award Foundation, 5 Under 35 Award, 2007
• MacArthur Foundation Fellow, 2012

Bibliography

Books

Essays

References

References

1. Mengestu, Dinaw. (7 September 2006). "The Tragedy of Darfur".
2. Relations, Bard Public. "Award-Winning Writer Dinaw Mengestu Named John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor in the Humanities at Bard College".
3. (1 October 2012). "2012 MacArthur Foundation 'Genius Grant' Winners". AP.
4. "Dinaw Mengestu." ''Contemporary Black Biography''. Vol. 66. Gale, 2008. Retrieved via ''Gale In Context: Biography'' database, 17 August 2019.
5. Thomas, Mike. (October 20, 2012). "Writer's long road to 'genius' is a story of overcoming racism". Chicago Sun Times.
6. "[https://arts.columbia.edu/profiles/dinaw-mengestu Dinaw Mengestu]" (alumnus profile). Columbia University School of the Arts. arts.columbia.edu. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
7. "Dinaw Mengestu". Hodder & Stoughton. hodder.co.uk.
8. [http://www.riverheadbooks.com/2010/06/two-riverhead-authors-dinaw-mengestu-and-salvatore-scibona-make-the-new-yorkers-20-under-40-fiction-writers-to-watc.html "Two Riverhead Authors: Dinaw Mengestu and Salvatore Scibona Make the New Yorker's 20 under 40 Fiction Writers to Watch"] {{Webarchive. link. (2010-06-19 , Riverhead Books)
9. [http://www.riverheadbooks.com/2010/07/the-new-yorker-excerpts-dinaw-mengestus-forthcoming-novel-how-to-read-the-air.html "The New Yorker Excerpts Dinaw Mengestu's Forthcoming Novel 'How to Read the Air'"] {{Webarchive. link. (2011-07-15 , Riverhead Books)
10. Hatley, James. [http://www.225batonrouge.com/article20120501/225BATONROUGE/120529945/0/past-issues "Making Gaines"] {{webarchive. link. (2014-06-06 , "225", Louisiana, 22 May 2012.)
11. [http://www.hayfestival.com/artistlist-m-p.aspx Africa39], Hay Festival.
12. (2016-04-07). "Guardian first book award: all the winners". The Guardian.
13. Flood, Alison. (September 16, 2008). "Young literary stars contend for £60,000 award". The Guardian.
14. (2020-07-03). "2007 L.A. Times Book Prize - First Fiction Winner and Nominees".
15. "Young Lions Award List of Winners and Finalists".
16. Wendland, Tegan. (2012-01-25). "Dinaw Mengestu Wins Ernest Gaines Literary Award".
17. "The Vilcek Foundation -".
18. Jennifer L. Knox, [http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/06/14/100614fi_fiction_20under40_qa_dinaw-mengestu "20 under 40: Q. & A.. Dinaw Mengestu"], ''The New Yorker'', 14 & 21 June 2010.
19. Published in the UK as ''Children of the revolution'' (2008).