Maaza Mengiste author page

Maaza Mengiste biography

Maaza Mengiste is an Ethiopian-born novelist, essayist and photographer. Born in Addis Ababa, she is a Fulbright Scholar and has taught in the MFA in Creative Writing and Literary Translation programme at Queens College, City University of New York. Her essays and other writing have appeared in publications including The New Yorker, Granta, The Guardian and The New York Times.

Her debut novel, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze, was published in the UK by Jonathan Cape in 2010. Set in Addis Ababa during the Ethiopian Revolution of the 1970s, it follows a family caught up in the political upheaval surrounding the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie and the rise of the Derg military regime.

Mengiste’s second novel, The Shadow King, was published in the UK by Canongate. Set during Italy’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, it centres on Hirut, a young woman who becomes involved in the Ethiopian resistance alongside other women taking part in the conflict. The novel was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, making Mengiste the first Ethiopian writer to reach the Booker shortlist.

She also edited the 2020 Akashic Books anthology Addis Ababa Noir and contributed the story “Dust, Ash, Flight”. The story won the 2021 Edgar Award for Best Short Story.