Awards & Winners

Nega Mezlekia

Date of Birth 1958
Place of Birth Jijiga
(Ethiopia, Somali Region, Jijiga Zone)
Nationality Ethiopia, Canada
Profession Writer, Novelist
Nega Mezlekia is an Ethiopian writer who writes in English. His first language is the Amharic language, but since the 1980s he has lived in Canada so speaks and writes in English. Nega was born in Jijiga, the oldest son of Mezlekia, a bureaucrat in the Imperial government. Although initially supporting the revolution that deposed Emperor Haile Selassie, he grew strongly critical of the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam. As a late teenager he abandoned his mother and siblings and set off with his best friend to join one of the armed rebel groups. In 1983 he left his position at Haramaya University to accept an engineering scholarship and study at Wageningen University. After two years in the Netherlands he was still unable to return home so moved to Canada instead. He has still never returned to Ethiopia. He recounted his life story in his first book, Notes from the Hyena's Belly. Published in 2000, his book won the Governor General's Award for English language non-fiction that same year. Mezlekia followed it up with the novel The God Who Begat a Jackal, which concerns an old Ethiopian myth. Although he still is a practicing engineer he indicates that he misses that sense of myth and spirituality from his youth.

Awards by Nega Mezlekia

Check all the awards nominated and won by Nega Mezlekia.

2003


Nominations 2003 »

Award Nominated Nominated Work
Locus Award for Best First Novel The god who begat a jackal

2000


Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction
Honored for : Notes from the Hyena's Belly

Nominations 2000 »

Award Nominated Nominated Work
Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction Notes from the Hyena's Belly