Dinaw Mengestu
39-year-old Mengestu was born in Ethiopia and emigrated to the United States with his family at the age of two. He settled in Peoria, Illinois and attended college in Washington D.C. at Georgetown University; he received his master’s degree from Columbia University in New York City.
Mengestu has written The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, How to Read the Air, and All Our Names. Additionally, he’s written for Rolling Stone, Jane Magazine, Harper’s, and The Wall Street Journal. He’s a former Lannan Fiction Fellowship (2007) and MacArthur Foundation Fellow (2012). In 2010 Mengestu was featured on The New Yorker 20 under 40 list, Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Literature for 2011, and 2012 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence.
