Maaza Mengiste was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and graduated with an M.F.A. in creative writing from New York University. A recent Pushcart Prize nominee, she was named New Literary Idol by New York Magazine. Her work has appeared in the Baltimore Review, Ninth Letter, and 42opus; has been translated and published into German and Romanian for Lettre International; and can be found in the anthology Homelands: Women's Journeys Across Race, Place and Time. A recipient of fellowships from the Prague Summer Program, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Yaddo, she currently lives in New York.
