Maaza Mengiste
Biographic Data
| ID | 1046531 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Maaza Mengiste |
| GIVEN NAMES | Maaza |
| FAMILY NAME | Mengiste |
| SIGNATURE | MENGISTE M |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 8 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
This is What the Journey Does
From This Place
From This Place Maaza Mengiste (bio) Geography. What does it mean to write from a place? Are we obligated, as writers, to constantly look back to those who came before us in order to validate what we are writing now? These questions felt like a persistent hum in the classrooms of the 2014 Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop in Barbados and the UK. They were both intriguing inquiries and subtle challenges. How far could we walk away from origin, fr…
What We Saw
The Shadow King is set during the Italo-Ethiopian war that began in 1935 when Benito Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in the hopes of colonizing it and creating an empire that would include Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia. The novel, due out this fall, tells the story of the Ethiopian men and women who fought for their country's independence
Moments of Redemption: The 2013 Puterbaugh Lecture
When she visited the University of Oklahoma in April 2013, Maaza Mengiste delivered a keynote address to an audience that included hundreds of students from the Norman public high schools, all of whom had read her first novel, Beneath the Lion's Gaze . The following is an abridged version of her talk
The Place in Between: An Interview with Esi Edugyan
The Place in Between:An Interview with Esi Edugyan Maaza Mengiste (bio) Esi Edugyan's 2011 Man Booker Prize finalist, Half-Blood Blues, opens with the lines, "Chip told us not to go out. Said, don't you boys tempt the devil." It is 1940 in Nazi-occupied Paris and the "boys" include Afro-German, Jewish, and African-American members of a jazz band who have recently fled an increasingly dangerous Berlin. They are living under a terrifying regime, tr…
Creative Writing as Translation
Creative Writing as Translation Maaza Mengiste (bio) A few months ago, I went to an exhibit of the winners of the 2011 World Press Photo competition. These were winning photographs taken in 2010 by photojournalists from around the world. There were several categories: Portraits, General News, People in the News, Sports, and so on. The World Press Photo of the Year, the image that broke through every category to define 2010, was the disturbing, st…
"A New "Tizita
A New “Tizita” Maaza Mengiste (bio) As I sit in front of my computer and prepare to write this piece about the 2010 Callaloo Conference in Addis Ababa, the first thing that comes to mind is the song, “Tizita.” “Tizita” is one of Ethiopia’s most popular songs, an anthem to nostalgia and longing, and it is also the Amharic word for memory. It seems that nearly every singer has adapted it to his/her own style and over the years it has outlasted any …
From Beneath the Lion's Gaze
from Beneath the Lion's Gaze Maaza Mengiste (bio) Sara heard the gate creak open and keys rattle. She wondered who was foolish enough to wander outside after sundown since patrol cars had begun to roam through the neighborhood. The police were everywhere these days, looking for possible suspects in the rash of bus burnings and shop lootings that had been taking place around the city. These bold acts of violence and rebellion, growing increasingly…
From Beneath the Lion's Gaze
from Beneath the Lion's Gaze Maaza Mengiste (bio) Sara heard the gate creak open and keys rattle. She wondered who was foolish enough to wander outside after sundown since patrol cars had begun to roam through the neighborhood. The police were everywhere these days, looking for possible suspects in the rash of bus burnings and shop lootings that had been taking place around the city. These bold acts of violence and rebellion, growing increasingly…
Moments of Redemption: The 2013 Puterbaugh Lecture
When she visited the University of Oklahoma in April 2013, Maaza Mengiste delivered a keynote address to an audience that included hundreds of students from the Norman public high schools, all of whom had read her first novel, Beneath the Lion's Gaze . The following is an abridged version of her talk
From Beneath the Lion's Gaze
from Beneath the Lion's Gaze Maaza Mengiste (bio) Sara heard the gate creak open and keys rattle. She wondered who was foolish enough to wander outside after sundown since patrol cars had begun to roam through the neighborhood. The police were everywhere these days, looking for possible suspects in the rash of bus burnings and shop lootings that had been taking place around the city. These bold acts of violence and rebellion, growing increasingly…
"A New "Tizita
A New “Tizita” Maaza Mengiste (bio) As I sit in front of my computer and prepare to write this piece about the 2010 Callaloo Conference in Addis Ababa, the first thing that comes to mind is the song, “Tizita.” “Tizita” is one of Ethiopia’s most popular songs, an anthem to nostalgia and longing, and it is also the Amharic word for memory. It seems that nearly every singer has adapted it to his/her own style and over the years it has outlasted any …
Creative Writing as Translation
Creative Writing as Translation Maaza Mengiste (bio) A few months ago, I went to an exhibit of the winners of the 2011 World Press Photo competition. These were winning photographs taken in 2010 by photojournalists from around the world. There were several categories: Portraits, General News, People in the News, Sports, and so on. The World Press Photo of the Year, the image that broke through every category to define 2010, was the disturbing, st…
The Place in Between: An Interview with Esi Edugyan
The Place in Between:An Interview with Esi Edugyan Maaza Mengiste (bio) Esi Edugyan's 2011 Man Booker Prize finalist, Half-Blood Blues, opens with the lines, "Chip told us not to go out. Said, don't you boys tempt the devil." It is 1940 in Nazi-occupied Paris and the "boys" include Afro-German, Jewish, and African-American members of a jazz band who have recently fled an increasingly dangerous Berlin. They are living under a terrifying regime, tr…
What We Saw
The Shadow King is set during the Italo-Ethiopian war that began in 1935 when Benito Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in the hopes of colonizing it and creating an empire that would include Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia. The novel, due out this fall, tells the story of the Ethiopian men and women who fought for their country's independence
Moments of Redemption: The 2013 Puterbaugh Lecture
When she visited the University of Oklahoma in April 2013, Maaza Mengiste delivered a keynote address to an audience that included hundreds of students from the Norman public high schools, all of whom had read her first novel, Beneath the Lion's Gaze . The following is an abridged version of her talk
From This Place
From This Place Maaza Mengiste (bio) Geography. What does it mean to write from a place? Are we obligated, as writers, to constantly look back to those who came before us in order to validate what we are writing now? These questions felt like a persistent hum in the classrooms of the 2014 Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop in Barbados and the UK. They were both intriguing inquiries and subtle challenges. How far could we walk away from origin, fr…
This is What the Journey Does
History (8 works) · Art (7 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Art history (4 works) · Media studies (4 works) · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies (4 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Visual arts (4 works) · African history and culture analysis (3 works) · Aesthetics (2 works)