Meron Hadero is an Ethiopian-American who was born in Addis Ababa and came to the US in her childhood via Germany. The first Ethiopian-born winner of the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing (2021), her debut short story collection, A DOWN HOME MEAL FOR THESE DIFFICULT TIMES, was published in June 2022 in the US & Canada and in December 2022 in the UK, Commonwealth, EU and beyond (more at thebookseller.com/rights/canongate-signs-two-book-deal-with-thrilling-new-voice-hadero).
Meron’s short stories have been shortlisted for the 2019 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing and appear in Best American Short Stories, Ploughshares, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Zyzzyva, Addis Ababa Noir, 40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology, and others. Her writing has also been published in The New York Times Book Review, the anthology The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives, and Letter to a Stranger: Essays to the Ones Who Haunt Us. Meron has been a fellow at Yaddo, Ragdale, and MacDowell, and a Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University. A 2023 San Francisco Public Library Laureate, Meron appeared in San Francisco Magazine’s 2018 feature “Making Waves: 100 Artists Putting the East Bay on the Map” and in Deutsche Welle’s year-end feature “Africa in 2021” for her short stories.
Meron is an alum of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where she worked as a research analyst for the President of Global Development, holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan, a JD from Yale Law School (Washington State Bar), and a BA in history from Princeton with a certificate in American studies.
A DOWN HOME MEAL FOR THESE DIFFICULT TIMES
Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction 2023
Finalist for the 2023 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection
Finalist for the 2023 Chautauqua Prize
Finalist for the 2023 African Literary Award from the Museum of the African Diaspora
Longlist for The Story Prize 2023
Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing
Best Books of 2022 — NPR, gal-dem, Open Country, Brittle Paper, African Arguments
Starred Reviews —Kirkus, Booklist, Foreword
5 Stars —BookBrowse
Most Anticipated Books of 2022 —The Millions, Electric Literature, Brittle Paper, Open Country, Ms.
9 New Short Story Collections That Leave You Wanting More —New York Public Library
“Witty and wistful, complex and heartbreaking...A thrilling debut.” —Brit Bennett, bestselling author of The Vanishing Half and The Mothers
“This book heralds the arrival of a gifted, stunning writer.” —Maaza Mengiste, author of Booker Prize finalist The Shadow King
“This style, which time and time again comes off the page as truly effortless, is what makes Hadero a new master of the form, and this collection a masterful one.” —Chigozie Obioma, author of Booker Prize finalists An Orchestra of Minorities and The Fishermen
“A powerful, unforgettable collection.” —Ingrid Rojas Contreras, bestselling author of Fruit of the Drunken Tree
“Rich with insight, compassion, and wit…an unforgettable debut.”—Vanessa Hua, bestselling author of A River of Stars and Forbidden City
“Debut books don’t get much stronger than this. Meron Hadero’s remarkable stories explore a diverse cast of people doing their best to find acceptance or at least stability…Hadero is deeply perceptive; her dialogue always rings true, and the regard she has for her characters is apparent. This isn’t just an excellent first book, it’s an excellent book, period.” —Michael Schaub, Books We Love, NPR
“Exquisite… Sentences infused with attitude throw gut punches that land with enough power to bring on tears.” —10 Award-Winning Short Story Collections Worth Reading, The Washington Post
A “precisely written and thoughtfully constructed collection…memorable and engaging….” —The Times Literary Supplement, UK
“Seeds, growth, and transposition – welcome or otherwise – bloom in this collection, in stories which hold beguiling wisdom.” —The Irish Times
“Wonderful, wise stories” —Daily Mail, UK
“Hadero’s collection shines with potent, affecting moments… A Down Home Meal For These Difficult Times opens your eyes to another world, and moving stories such as “The Thief’s Tale” will hopefully make readers think about what life is really like for immigrants, refugees and those facing displacement.” —December Books of the Month, The Independent, UK
“Meron Hadero’s debut is a rich and vivid exploration of the lives of Ethiopians—dispersed across continents and generations… there is much more to this jewel of a collection than loss and devastation—there is also compassion, solidarity, joy, and even a call to arms. ‘Imagine that, if one voice calling out a simple ideal could be a revolution in itself.’ The power of these stories will make you believe that such a thing might be possible.” —Best of the Month, December 2022, Apple Books, UK
“In these stories, there are refugees and more privileged immigrants...most noticeably, there is Hadero’s unusual and remarkable tenderness. She is gentle with her characters’ lives…a stunner.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“An astonishing debut...If the danger faced by those who live on the anxious edge of societies, whether in Ethiopia or Germany or the United States, is not always―or even often―recognized, Hadero suggests, the signs are present long before they’re understood. In A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times, she has crafted a profound collection that identifies this sensibility...” —Alta Journal
"Hadero’s page shines...expanding instead of narrowing the range and representation of immigrant experiences." —Mother Jones
“In a year particularly rich with story collections, Ethiopian American author Hadero’s debut collection stands out for its evocation of the immigrant experience...What’s distinctive here are the multiple perspectives Hadero brings to her work…and the need to connect shines throughout this strong collection.” —Library Journal
“Told with fierce honesty and compassion, Hadero's collection lives up to its title, providing a flavorful, nourishing feast.” —Shelf Awareness
“Hadero excels at creating small moments with high stakes such as these, investigating the minefield of interrelations and frictions her characters face amid competing cultural imperatives…. Throughout, Hadero achingly shows how her characters attempt to communicate their regrets, sorrows, and dreams. This assured debut is well worth a look.” —Publishers Weekly
“Although she’s concerned with specific geographies, Hadero creates a remarkable universal resonance, exquisitely illuminating quotidian moments that could, and do, happen anywhere in the world where people long to belong…” —10 Best Books of June, The Christian Science Monitor
“Some authors write sympathetically... A select few, however, write with empathy, allowing us to emotionally understand what their characters are going through. This is something Hadero does well... This is a book worth reading not only for its literary merit but for what we can learn about what it means to be an immigrant. I loved the book.” —The Internet Review of Books
“Meron Hadero’s A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times is a mosaic of the disarray, displacement, and resolve of her Ethiopian and Ethiopian American characters.” ―World Literature Today
“The dispossessed peoples of the world are explored in Ethiopian-born Hadero’s dazzling new story collection…She is definitely a writer to watch.” ―The Center for Fiction
“A brilliant debut collection of stories of the Ethiopian diaspora, by a writer whose work has appeared in Ploughshares and Best American Short Stories.” — Peter Ho Davies, Book Recommendations from Our Former Guest Editors, Ploughshares.
“Hadero’s collection brims with men and women, old and young, grappling with displacement, identity, immigration, and Blackness in America—not Blackness as a monolith, but as a multifaceted, complicated aspect of identity. These stories explore what becomes of an identity when you must adopt a new country, custom, language, and troubled history.” — Sakinah Hofler On A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times, The Georgia Review.
SHORT STORIES
“The Suitcase" in Best American Short Stories 2016, originally in The Missouri Review, Fall 2015. 40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology, 6th Edition, edited by Beverly Lawn & Joanne Diaz, Bedford/St. Martin's (Macmillan Learning), 2020. Selected Shorts, NPR/PRI performed in 2017 by Renée Elise Goldsberry of Hamilton.
“The Street Sweep” in Zyzzyva, Winter 2018. Winner of the 2021 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing.
“Medallion” in the New England Review, Fall 2020. A Distinguished Story in Best American Short Stories 2021.
“The Drought That Drowned Us” in Ploughshares, guest edited by Celeste Ng, Summer 2020.
“Kind Stranger” in Addis Ababa Noir, edited by Maaza Mengiste, Akashic Books, Summer 2020.
“The Wall" in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Issue 52, 2018. Shortlisted for the 2019 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing.
“A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times” in The Iowa Review, Winter 2018/2019. Selected Shorts, NPR/PRX performed in 2023 by Chinasa Ogbuagu.
“The Thief’s Tale,” performed by Teagle F. Bougere for Selected Shorts on Tour, April 2023. Featured in Town Hall Seattle’s Short Stories Live, March 2024.
“Sinkholes" in Indiana Review, Summer 2017.
“Preludes" in The Offing, January 2016. Excerpted in The Johannesburg Review of Books and Lit Hub, 2022.
“Mekonnen aka Mack aka Huey Freakin’ Newton" in Boulevard, Fall 2015. A Distinguished Story in Best American Short Stories 2016. Glimmer Train Fiction Open Finalist, 2014.
“Swearing In, January 20, 2009" in The Normal School Online, August 2015.
NONFICTION
“Home for the Holidays: Celebrating Ethiopian and American Festive Traditions,” gal-dem, December 21, 2022.
“City of Books,” Alta Newsletter, June 30, 2022.
Contributor, Letter to a Stranger: Essays to the Ones Who Haunt Us, Algonquin, 2022.
Symposium contributor, Boulevard, Fall 2018.
The New York Times Book Review, Kanishk Tharoor's Swimmer Among the Stars, June 11, 2017.
PUBLIC EVENTS & INTERVIEWS
Selected Shorts podcast interview with Meg Wolitzer, November 2023.
African Book Club, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, April 2023.
Library Laureate Honoree, San Francisco Public Library Laureates Gala, April 2023.
Reading at Howard University’s International Black Writers Festival with Tricia Hersey, Simone White and Ashley M. Jones moderated by Ta-Nehisi Coates, October 6, 2022.
Book panel at the International literature festival Berlin (ilb) September 8, 2022.
Writers' Forum Interview with Michael Tusa on WRBH 88.3 FM New Orleans, August 22, 2022.
“New Arrivals: A Socially Distanced Book Tour” episode on KALW 91.7 in the Bay Area and NPR podcasts online, July 14, 2022.
The Odyssey Bookshop, 7pm, July 7, 2022.
Morning Edition on NPR, Interview with co-host Leila Fadel, June 29, 2022.
Book launch for A DOWN HOME MEAL FOR THESE DIFFICULT TIMES with Ingrid Rojas Contreras at Booksmith, San Francisco, June 28, 2022.
New York Public Library Author Talk for Refugee Day. June 2022.
PEN America, PEN Ten Interview, May 2022.
L.A. Times Festival of Books Panel “The Art & Craft of the Short Story” with Said Sayrafiezadeh, Mariana Enriquez, and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson moderated by John Freeman, April 2022.
BBC’s In the Studio episode “Meron Hadero: Inside the Mind of a Writer.” March 2022.
Reading at Georgetown University’s Lannan Center for Poetics & Social Practice, March 2022.
Special guest with Henry Louis Gates Jr., Edwidge Danticat, and Harry Elam for “Conversations Across the Diaspora” featuring Nobel laureate in literature Wole Soyinka, hosted by Sarah Ladipo Manyika & the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, September 30, 2021.
Reading Women Podcast Interview, August 25, 2021.
Open Country Magazine Interview, August 24, 2021.
BBC The Cultural Frontline “Literature in Lockdown: Meron Hadero and Emilia Clarke,” August 14, 2021.
Africa in Dialogue Interview, July 30, 2021.
BBC Newsday Interview, July 27, 2021.
BBC Focus on Africa Interview, July 26, 2021.
In Conversation: African Literature in the Digital Age with Dr. Ida Hadjivayanis and AKO Caine Prize Shortlisted Authors at SOAS, University of London (virtual), July 22, 2021.
Africa in Words Interview, July 21, 2021.
Africa Writes AKO Caine Prize 2021 Shortlist in Conversation at the British Library (virtual), July 19, 2021.
OkayAfrica “Meet the Shortlisted Writers for the 2021 AKO Caine Prize” Interviews, June 2, 2021.
Reading from short story “The Wall” for book launch of Dr. Fareda Banda’s African Migration, Human Rights and Literature, Centre for Women, Peace and Security at the London School of Economics, April 2021.
Steinbeck Fellows reading at San Jose State University’s Steinbeck Center, December 5, 2019, San Jose, CA.
Africa Writes Conference panel with Caine Prize shortlisted writers moderated by Dr. Fareda Banda. July 6, 2019, The British Library, London.
Readings and discussion with Caine Prize shortlisted writers hosted by Debo Amon. July 5, 2019, John Harvard Library Southwark, London.
An evening of conversation with Caine Prize shortlisted writers chaired by Georgina Godwin at the Royal Overseas League. July 4, 2019, London.
Caine Prize shortlisted writers in conversation with Dr. Chege Githiora. July 3, 2019, SOAS, University of London.
Caine Prize shortlisted writers on the Books & Rhymes podcast recorded live. July 1, 2019 at Library, London.
Zyzzyva fundraiser featured guest with Tommy Orange, Matthew Zapruder, and emcee Isaac Fitzgerald. June 21, 2019 at Manny’s, San Francisco.
Zyzzyva Winter Issue reading with contributors, December 2018, Dog Eared Books, San Francisco.
The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives reading and discussion with anthology editor Viet Thanh Nguyen and contributor Thi Bui. June 2018, City Lights, San Francisco.
The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives book launch and discussion with anthology editor Viet Thanh Nguyen and Abrams Press editor Jamison Stoltz. April 2018, Skylight Books, LA.
“Authors in Conversation” with novelist Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi. June 2017, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco.
Reading with Jim Shepard, Hannah Tinti, Lydia Kiesling, and Erin Byrne. June 2017, Babylon Salon, San Francisco.