I tend to write longer narrative pieces after I’ve finished writing a novel – when the fiction’s finished and put away, and I have a chance to take all the ideas that are buried inside of my novels and work with them directly. Dinaw Mengestu Read Quote
The Duino Elegies’ are notoriously cryptic, and part of the reason why I have always loved them is because they invite multiple readings over the course of a lifetime. Dinaw Mengestu Read Quote
The fact that I have always been deeply invested in politics, and African politics in particular, inevitably played a role in my first novel and, of course, in my decision to write about a handful of particular conflicts in Africa as a journalist. Dinaw Mengestu Read Quote
The MFA program did one great thing for me: It taught me how to be a better reader and critic. Nothing I wrote during my time at Columbia remains – but learning how to really deconstruct a work of fiction – that, of course, is a permanent part of me now. Dinaw Mengestu Read Quote
In high school, I began to dig my way into Ethiopian history, and began to understand myself as a young man formed by multiple narratives. Dinaw Mengestu Read Quote
My parents never referenced Ethiopia that much, largely because of the circumstances under which we left. We left during a time of political upheaval, and there was a lot of loss that came with that, so my parents were reluctant to talk about those things. So I had, by and large, an American childhood. Dinaw Mengestu Read Quote
When I was growing up, Forest Park was full of integrated families. It was amazing. One my best friends was Vietnamese. Another one was half-Mexican, half-black. Another one was from Colombia. Another one was born in the U.S., but his mom was from Germany and spoke with a German accent. So we all had multiple identities. Dinaw Mengestu Read Quote
Obviously, in marketing, the best tool is to show the autobiography in fiction. It’s inevitable how that happens, but it’s generic. Say I’ve written a story where my sister dies. ‘Well, did your sister die?’ No, she did not. But people use those straws to grasp at the difference between reality and fiction. Dinaw Mengestu Read Quote
When I think of my work, I’m aware that I’m American and African at all points and times. And without a doubt, my experience and understanding of America was shaped by having immigrant parents. Dinaw Mengestu Read Quote
