Ethiopian-American fiction writer Maaza Mengiste has been named a 2026 MacArthur Fellow, receiving an $800,000 fellowship grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
She is among 20 recipients selected for the 2026 MacArthur Fellowship, which provides each fellow with $800,000 in unrestricted support, paid over five years.
Mengiste was serving jury duty in the Bronx when she received the call informing her that she had been selected. The call appeared as spam, but she answered and learned that she had been chosen for the fellowship.
In her words, Mengiste said:
“There was such a disconnect between where I was and the news. I was completely stunned.”
The MacArthur Fellowship was established in 1981 and is awarded to people who demonstrate exceptional creativity, a record of significant achievement, and the potential for further creative work. The Foundation does not require Fellows to complete a specific project or submit reports, allowing recipients to decide how to use the funding. Since the programme began, 1,195 people have been named MacArthur Fellows. Among the 1,195 fellows is Maaza Mengiste.
Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Maaza Mengiste studied English language and literature at the University of Michigan, where she earned her BA in 1993. She later received an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University in 2007.
Her first novel, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze, was published in 2010. Set during the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie and the rise of Ethiopia’s military government, the novel follows a physician and his two sons as the country moves through political violence.
She then followed it with The Shadow King in 2019. Set during Italy’s occupation of Ethiopia between 1935 and 1941, the novel tells the story of women who took part in the resistance, including Hirut and Aster. It was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. Beyond her novels, Mengiste is the editor of Addis Ababa Noir, a 2019 collection of crime stories set in the Ethiopian capital. Her short story “Dust, Ash, Flight,” from the collection, won the 2021 Edgar Award for Best Short Story.
Mengiste has taught creative writing at Wesleyan University since 2023. Before joining Wesleyan, she taught at Princeton University and Queens College. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, London Review of Books, Granta, and other publications.
She is now working on A Brief Portrait of Small Deaths, a novel set in interwar Berlin. The book looks at the rise of the Nazis from the perspective of Black Germans, including some who served as models for German Expressionist artists.
Expressing her excitement, she said:
“I just feel completely grateful and humbled. I want to make good use of the time and a bit of the inspiration that this allows, the flexibility, [so] I can now push even further in my work.”
Congratulations, Maaza Mengiste!
