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class="et_close_search_field"></span> </div> </div> </header>  <div id="et-main-area"> <div id="main-content"> <article id="post-17" class="post-17 page type-page status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry"> <div class="entry-content"> <div id="et-boc" class="et-boc"> <div class="et-l et-l--post"> <div class="et_builder_inner_content et_pb_gutters3"><div class="et_pb_section et_pb_section_0 et_section_regular"> <div class="et_pb_row et_pb_row_0"> <div class="et_pb_column et_pb_column_2_5 et_pb_column_0 et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough"> <div class="et_pb_module et_pb_image et_pb_image_0"> <span class="et_pb_image_wrap "><img decoding="async" src="https://www.maazamengiste.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Maaza_Mengiste-5-2.jpg" alt="" title="" srcset="https://www.maazamengiste.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Maaza_Mengiste-5-2.jpg 1874w, https://www.maazamengiste.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Maaza_Mengiste-5-2-1280x1708.jpg 1280w, https://www.maazamengiste.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Maaza_Mengiste-5-2-980x1307.jpg 980w, https://www.maazamengiste.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Maaza_Mengiste-5-2-480x640.jpg 480w" sizes="(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) and (max-width: 1280px) 1280px, (min-width: 1281px) 1874px, 100vw" /></span> </div><div class="et_pb_module et_pb_text et_pb_text_0 et_pb_text_align_left et_pb_bg_layout_light"> <div class="et_pb_text_inner"><p><em><strong>Image Credit: Nina Subin</strong></em></p></div> </div>  </div> <div class="et_pb_column et_pb_column_3_5 et_pb_column_1 et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough et-last-child"> <div class="et_pb_module et_pb_text et_pb_text_1 et_pb_text_align_justified et_pb_bg_layout_light"> <div class="et_pb_text_inner"><p>Maaza Mengiste is a novelist, essayist, and photographer. She is the author of the novel, <em>The Shadow King</em>, which was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, and was a 2020 <em>LA Times</em> Book Prize Fiction finalist. It was named best book of the year by the <em>New York Times</em>, NPR, <em>Elle</em>, <em>Time</em>, and more. <em>The Shadow King,</em> called “a brilliant novel…compulsively readable” by Salman Rushdie, is currently available in Spanish, Swedish, French, German, Italian, Romanian, Turkish, and Finnish, with more translations forthcoming.</p> <p>Her debut novel, <em>Beneath the Lion’s Gaze</em>, was selected by the<em> Guardian</em> as one of the 10 best contemporary African books and named one of the best books of 2010 by <em>Christian Science Monitor</em>, <em>Boston Globe</em>, and other publications. Her story, “Dust, Ash, Flight,” which appeared in <em>Addis Ababa Noir</em>, edited by Maaza, was awarded a 2021 Edgar Award for Best Short Story.</p> <p>She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, a DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Fellowship, a Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers Fellowship, the Premio von Rezzori, the Premio il ponte, a Fulbright Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Award, and a Creative Capital Award. Her work can be found in <em>The New Yorker</em>, <em>The New York Review of Books</em>, <em>Granta</em>, the <em>Guardian</em>, <em>The New York Times</em>, <em>Esquire,</em> <em>Rolling Stone</em>, and BBC, among other places.</p></div> </div>  </div>  </div>  </div>  </div> </div> </div> </div>  </article>  </div>  <footer id="main-footer"> <div id="footer-bottom"> <div class="container clearfix"> <div id="footer-info"><p>© Maaza Mengiste. 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