A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times

Last updated
A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times
Author Meron Hadero
LanguageEnglish
Publisher Restless Books
Publication date
2022
Pages224 (first edition)
ISBN 978-1-63206-118-8

A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times is a 2022 short stories collection by Ethiopian-American writer Meron Hadero. Her debut short stories collection, it won the 2020 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing and was published by Restless Books in 2022. The short stories collection includes "The Street Sweep" which won the 2021 Caine Prize.

Contents

Background

Hadero was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia relocated to the United States as a child through Germany. She earned her bachelor's degrees at Princeton University, a Juris Doctor in Yale and an MFA at the University of Michigan. [1]

The short stories collection won the 2020 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing and was published in 2022 by Restless Books. [1]

Awards and reception

"The Street Sweep" which was included in the collection won the 2021 Caine Prize. [1]

Terry Hong writing for The Christian Science Monitor praised the narrative of the stories and the writers "prodigious storytelling". [1] The book received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews , which concluded with the description: "Entertaining and affecting stories with a deft lightness of touch." [2] Eileen Gonzalez of Foreword called it a "heartfelt collection about the highs, lows, and ordinary days of Ethiopian life" [3] while Publishers Weekly called it an "assured debut is well worth a look." [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sergio Troncoso</span> American writer

Sergio Troncoso is an American author of short stories, essays and novels. He often writes about the United States-Mexico border, working-class immigrants, families and fatherhood, philosophy in literature, and crossing cultural, psychological, and philosophical borders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caine Prize</span> Annual award for best original short story by an African writer

The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, published in the English language. Founded in the United Kingdom in 2000, the £10,000 prize was named in memory of businessman and philanthropist Sir Michael Harris Caine, former chairman of Booker Group and of the Booker Prize management committee. The Caine Prize is sometimes called the "African Booker". The Chair of the Board is Ellah Wakatama, appointed in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sefi Atta</span> Nigerian author and playwright (born 1964)

Sefi Atta is a Nigerian-American novelist, short-story writer, playwright and screenwriter. Her books have been translated into many languages, her radio plays have been broadcast by the BBC, and her stage plays have been performed internationally. Awards she has received include the 2006 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa and the 2009 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amit Chaudhuri</span> Indian poet and classical singer (born 1962)

Amit Chaudhuri is a novelist, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, singer, and music composer from India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laila Lalami</span> Moroccan-American writer, and professor (born 1968)

Laila Lalami is a Moroccan-American novelist, essayist, and professor. After earning her licence ès lettres degree in Morocco, she received a fellowship to study in the United Kingdom (UK), where she earned an MA in linguistics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helon Habila</span> Nigerian novelist and poet (born 1967)

Helon Habila Ngalabak is a Nigerian novelist and poet, whose writing has won many prizes, including the Caine Prize in 2001. He worked as a lecturer and journalist in Nigeria before moving in 2002 to England, where he was a Chevening Scholar at the University of East Anglia, and now teaches creative writing at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.

Nadia Davids is a South African playwright, novelist, and author of short stories and screenplays. Her work has been published, produced, and performed in Southern Africa, Europe, and the United States. She was a Philip Leverhulme Prize winner in 2013. Her play What Remains won five Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marion Meade</span> American novelist (1934–2022)

Marion Meade was an American biographer and novelist. She was best known for her portraits of writers and filmmakers.

Olufemi Terry is a Sierra Leone-born writer. He won the 2010 Caine Prize for African Writing for his second short story "Stickfighting Days," which was originally published in Chimurenga. The judges said he was "a talent with an enormous future". He hopes to publish his debut novel soon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doreen Baingana</span> Ugandan short story writer and editor (born 1966)

Doreen Baingana is a Ugandan writer. Her short story collection, Tropical Fish, won the Grace Paley Award for Short Fiction in 2003 and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for best first book, Africa Region in 2006. Stories in it were finalists for the Caine Prize in 2004 and 2005. She was a Caine Prize finalist for the third time in 2021 and has received many other awards listed below.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Namwali Serpell</span> Zambian feminist academic and writer (born 1980)

Namwali Serpell is an American and Zambian writer who teaches in the United States. In April 2014, she was named on Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with the potential and talent to define trends in African literature. Her short story "The Sack" won the 2015 Caine Prize for African fiction in English. In 2020, Serpell won the Belles-lettres category Grand Prix of Literary Associations 2019 for her debut novel The Old Drift.

Meri Nana-Ama Danquah is a Ghanaian-American writer, editor, journalist and public speaker, whose name at birth was Mildred Mary Nana-Ama Boakyewaa Brobby. She is best known for her 1998 memoir Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman's Journey Through Depression. Her short story "When a Man Loves a Woman" was shortlisted for the 2022 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing.

May-lee Chai is an American author of fiction and nonfiction. She is also currently a professor of creative writing at San Francisco State University.

Restless Books is an independent, non-profit publisher located in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was founded in 2013 and was based in Brooklyn, New York until 2023. Restless publishes "international works of fiction, journalism, memoirs, travel writing, and illustrated books." The press published 15-20 titles a year, including authors Ruth Ozeki, Lana Bastašić, Yishai Sarid, Andrea Chapela, Tash Aw, Chris Abani, Gabriela Wiener, and Giacomo Sartori. It includes the Yonder imprint for younger readers.

Lesley Nneka Arimah is a Nigerian writer. She has been described as "a skillful storyteller who can render entire relationships with just a few lines of dialogue" and "a new voice with certain staying power." She is the winner of the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa, the 2017 O. Henry Prize, the 2017 Kirkus Prize, and the 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irenosen Okojie</span> Nigerian writer

Irenosen Iseghohi Okojie FRSL is a Nigerian-born novelist and short-story writer working in London, England. Her stories incorporate speculative elements and also make use of her West African heritage. Her first novel, Butterfly Fish won a Betty Trask Award in 2016, and her story "Grace Jones" won the 2020 Caine Prize for African Writing. Okojie was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) in 2018, and in 2020 was appointed a vice-chair of the RSL.

<i>How to Pronounce Knife</i> 2020 short story collection by Souvankham Thammavongsa

How to Pronounce Knife is a short story collection by Souvankham Thammavongsa, published in 2020 by McClelland & Stewart. The stories in the collection centre principally on the experiences of Laotian Canadian immigrant families, sometimes from the perspective of children observing the world of adults.

Grace Talusan is a Filipino American writer. Her 2019 memoir, The Body Papers, won the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing and the Massachusetts Book Award in nonfiction and was a New York Times Editors' Choice selection. Her short story, "The Book of Life and Death," was the Boston Book Festival's One City One Story selection in 2020.

<i>What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky</i> An anthology by Lesley Nneka Arimah

What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky is a collection of short stories by Nigerian writer Lesley Nneka Arimah, initially published in April 2017 by Riverhead Books and Tinder Press (UK), then republished in Nigeria by Farafina Books in November 2017.

Meron Hadero is an Ethiopian American writer. She is known for her debut collection, A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times published in 2022 by Restless Books.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Hong, Terry (29 July 2022). "From the particular to the universal: Cross-cultural stories". The Christian Science Monitor . Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  2. "A DOWN HOME MEAL FOR THESE DIFFICULT TIMES". Kirkus Reviews . 15 March 2022. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  3. Gonzalez, Eileen (2022). "Review of A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times". Foreword. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  4. "A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times". Publishers Weekly . 4 April 2022. Retrieved 8 August 2024.