Dinaw Mengestu
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Dinaw Mengestu is an Ethiopian American novelist and writer. In addition to four novels, he has written for Rolling Stone on the war in Darfur, and for Jane Magazine on the conflict in northern Uganda
Dinaw Mengestu in March 2014
PEN America
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PEN America, founded in 1922, and headquartered in New York City, is a 501 nonprofit organization whose goal is to raise awareness for the protection of free expression in the United States and worldw
Dinaw Mengestu
…Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with the potential and the talent to define the trends of the region. In 2016, Mengestu became a board trustee at PEN America. In December 2025, he was elected to a two-year term as president of PEN America and chair of its board of trustees. In July 2026, Mengestu resigned…
The 1986 PEN congress: (left to right) John Updike, Norman Mailer, E. L. Doctorow