Maaza Mengiste

Maaza Mengiste is an Ethiopian-American novelist born in Addis Ababa in 1971. Her debut novel Beneath the Lion's Gaze (2010) was named one of the Guardian's best books of the year. The Shadow King (2019) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2020 and the LA Times Book Prize, and won the Windham-Campbell Prize. Mengiste is a professor at Queens College, City University of New York.