Maaza Mengiste

Born in Addis Ababa, Maaza Mengiste is an Ethiopian American novelist, essayist and photographer. She studied English at the University of Michigan and earned an MFA in creative writing from New York University. She is also a professor of English and director of creative writing at Wesleyan University.

Mengiste writes historical fiction shaped by Ethiopia’s twentieth century. Her novels examine how war and revolution enter homes, divide loyalties and alter private lives. Photography, gender and the recovery of overlooked histories recur throughout her work. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze, her 2010 debut, follows a family through the Ethiopian Revolution and the violence of the Derg regime.

The Shadow King, published in 2019, turns to Italy’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia. At its center is Hirut, a young servant who joins the resistance and helps disguise a peasant as Emperor Haile Selassie after the emperor goes into exile. The novel shifts among Ethiopian and Italian perspectives while bringing women’s military roles into view. It was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. Mengiste later received a 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction.

New readers should begin with The Shadow King. Its vivid battle scenes and changing viewpoints create a broad account of the conflict, while Hirut’s transformation gives the novel an intimate center. Readers drawn to Mengiste’s treatment of history can continue with Beneath the Lion’s Gaze.