Maaza Mengiste’s short story, Dush, Ash, Flight which was published in the collection Addis Ababa Noir (Akashic Books), has won the 2021 Edgar Awards for Best Short Story.

The prize is named after the American writer, Edgar Allan Poe. The awards are annually awarded by the Mystery Writers of America and “honors the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television, film, and theatre published or produced in the previous year.”

Here is a description of Mengiste’s story below;

“In Dust, Ash, Flight,  Alfonso is an Argentine photographer who takes images of the human remains of Ethiopian prisoners. He encounters an Ethiopian man, Gideon, who is looking for his disappeared son. The story is based on a real-life team of forensic scientists who went to Ethiopia to excavate mass graves. The story looks at what we mean by evidence and how memory can speak a different kind of truth.”

Congratulations to Maaza Mengiste!

Image source: Criminal Element