Ethiopian-American novelist Dinaw Mengestu has been elected president of PEN America, a leading organization for literature and free expression. The election occurred on December 17, 2025, during the group's annual meeting.
Dinaw Mengestu, an acclaimed Ethiopian-American author, was chosen as the new president of PEN America on December 17, 2025, at the organization's annual general meeting. He will lead for a two-year term as president and chair of the Board of Trustees, following writer and activist Jennifer Finney Boylan.
Mengestu joined the board as a trustee in 2016. His novels, including The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, How to Read the Air, All Our Names, and Someone Like Us, delve into themes of migration, memory, and identity. These works have garnered significant awards, such as a MacArthur Fellowship and the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 honor. Former President Barack Obama has also named his writing among his favorites.
Summer Lopez, PEN America's interim co-CEO, highlighted Mengestu's contributions: "Dinaw Mengestu has spent his career illuminating the borders between countries, histories, and identities, and bringing readers into the lives of those too often pushed to the margins. His unwavering commitment to free expression, his advocacy for writers under threat around the world, and his profound belief in literature’s power to humanize across deep divides will guide the organization through this pivotal moment for democracy and the written word."
In addition to his fiction, Mengestu has reported from conflict zones like Darfur, Uganda, and eastern Congo. He currently oversees the Center for Ethics and Writing and the Written Arts Program at Bard College.
This role aligns Mengestu with notable past presidents such as Salman Rushdie, Jennifer Egan, and Ayad Akhtar, continuing PEN America's legacy of supporting global literary freedom.
