Maaza Mengiste is a novelist, essayist, and Professor of English at Wesleyan University. She holds a BA in English from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Creative Writing/Fiction from New York University. Her writing focuses on the lives of ordinary people amid social and political upheaval, and the intersections of photography, gender, and war. Mengiste is the author of Beneath the Lion’s Gaze (W.W. Norton, 2010), named among the ten best contemporary African books by the Guardian; and The Shadow King (W.W. Norton, 2019), finalist for the 2020 Booker Prize and named among the best books of the year by the New York Times, Guardian, Time, Elle, and others. She is the editor of Addis Ababa Noir (Akashic Books, 2019) and a winner of the 2021 Edgar Award for Best Short Story. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, Granta, The Guardian, New York Times, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and BBC, among other places. Mengiste has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Fulbright Scholars Program, National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital, DAAD, Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, among other places. Mengiste also serves on the Board of Directors of Words Without Borders.
At the Academy, Mengiste will work on her third novel, “A Brief Portrait of Small Deaths.” Set in Berlin during the interwar period, the novel centers on Milli, a Black German woman and the daughter of a well-connected communist. Originally from Hamburg, she is in Berlin to try her luck at a career on stage, and soon discovers Berlin’s bustling art world. There she rubs shoulders with German Expressionists and becomes a part-time portrait model just as the Nazis are gaining power. Drawing on historical documents, letters, diary entries, art criticism, and court records, “A Brief Portrait of Small Deaths” captures a grim period in German history, the rise of National Socialism and its campaigns against free cultural expression. In particular, the novel imagines the intimate lives of Black Germans portrayed and immortalized in what the Nazis later deemed “Degenerate Art.” In Berlin, Mengiste intends to conduct research on Nazi propaganda films featuring Black actors or pertaining to former African colonies. She also hopes to dig deeper into the connections between Hamburg and Berlin’s communist groups, and to gain a clearer sense of the global networks that sprang from those cities.
Meet Maaza Mengiste
A short portrait filmed at the Hans Arnhold Center, introducing the work and ideas behind this semester in Berlin.
Upcoming events
Discover what’s coming up in the Academy’s public program this semester.
Past events
Lectures, readings, and conversations from the Academy’s public program.
The processes and archival research involved in writing.
Reimagining the lives of some of Berlin’s marginalized populations as the Nazis came to power.
Berlin Journal Articles
Essays, interviews, and creative work published in the Academy’s annual magazine.
Books
Books written by fellows of the Academy, many begun during a semester in Berlin.
Videos
Lectures, readings, and conversations filmed at the Hans Arnhold Center.
A Brief Portrait of Small Deaths: A Novel in Search of the Other Berlin
Set primarily in 1930s Berlin, Maaza Mengiste’s novel-in-progress, “A Brief Portrait of Small Deaths,” reimagines the lives of some of Berlin’s marginalized populations as the Nazis came to power.
Fellow Spotlight: Maaza Mengiste
Maaza Mengiste is writing a novel set at the outer edges of 1930s Berlin.
Explore Past Fellows
Hakim Abderrezak
Marco Abel
David Abraham
