Talent

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Dinaw Mengestu

Biography

Dinaw Mengestu is the author of three novels, all of which were named New York Times Notable Books: All Our Names (Knopf, 2014), How To Read the Air (Riverhead, 2010), and The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (Riverhead, 2007). A native of Ethiopia who came with his family to the United States at the age of two, Mengestu is also a freelance journalist who has reported about life in Darfur, northern Uganda, and eastern Congo. His articles and fiction have appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, Harper’s, Granta, Jane, and Rolling Stone. He is a 2012 MacArthur Fellow and recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship for Fiction, National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Award, Guardian First Book Award, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize, among other honors. He was also included in The New Yorker’s “20 under 40” list in 2010. In its cover page review of All Our Names, the New York Times Book Review said “You can’t turn the pages fast enough, and when you’re done, your first impulse is to go back to the beginning and start over . . . While questions of race, ethnicity, and point of origin do crop up repeatedly in Mengestu’s fiction, they are merely his raw materials, the fuel with which he so artfully—but never didactically—kindles disruptive, disturbing stories exploring the puzzles of identity, place, and human connection.” BA, Georgetown University; MFA, Columbia University. At Bard since 2016.

News / Ranking / Titbits / Awards

Recognized as a New York Times Notable Book in 2007, receiving the Lannan Fiction Fellowship in the same year, and being honored with the National Book Award Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award in 2007. In that same year, he also received the prestigious Guardian First Book Award and was a finalist for the Prix Femina étranger and Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle. His literary prowess continued to shine with recognitions such as the Prix du Premier Meilleur Roman Etranger in 2007 and being a finalist for the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2008 and the New York Public Library Young Lions Award in 2008. He further established himself as a notable author by winning the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2008 and being selected for The New Yorker’s “20 Under 40” in 2010. In 2011, he was honored with the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Literature, followed by the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2012. He capped off his remarkable journey with the 2012 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence.

Talent

Dinaw Mengestu

Biography

News / Ranking / Titbits / Awards

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