The 2021 winner of the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, Meron Hadero, is set to release a collection of short stories. The collection, titled,A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times is forthcoming in May 2022 from Restless Books. In 2020, the collection, which was then titled Preludes, won the 2020 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing. It has been praised for its “enormous power and wonderful subtlety.”
Here is a description of the collection:
“Set across the U.S. and abroad, Meron Hadero’s stories feature characters who are immigrants, refugees, and those facing dislocation, all struggling to begin again, all fighting to belong. Moving through diverse geographies and styles, these captivating narratives follow characters on the journey toward home, which they dream of, create and redefine, lose and find and make their own. Beyond migration, these stories examine themes of race, gender, class, friendship and betrayal, the despair of loss and the enduring resilience of hope.
Winner of the 2021 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, “The Street Sweep” is about an enterprising young man on the verge of losing his home in Addis Ababa who pursues an improbable opportunity to turn his life around. Appearing in Best American Short Stories, “The Suitcase” follows a woman visiting her country of origin for the first time and finds that an ordinary object opens up an unexpected, complex bridge between worlds.
Shortlisted for the 2019 Caine Prize, “The Wall” portrays the intergenerational friendship between two refugees living in Iowa who have connections to Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall. A Best American Short Stories notable, “Mekonnen aka Mack aka Huey Freakin’ Newton” is a coming-of-age tale about an Ethiopian immigrant in Brooklyn encountering nuances of race in his new country.
Kaleidoscopic, powerful, and illuminative, the stories in A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times expand our understanding of the essential and universal need for connection and the vital refuge of home—and announce a major new talent in Meron Hadero.”
Meron Hadero is an Ethiopian American writer. She won the 2021 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story “The Street Sweep” (ZYZZYVA, 2018).
Photo credit: Meron Hadero
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