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I couldn't be more American if I tried. I was born in Ethiopia, but I was raised and educated as an American.

- Dinaw Mengestu
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Dinaw Mengestu
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When I began 'All Our Names,' I did so wanting to create parallel narratives between Africa in the nineteen-seventies and America during that same period.

Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, the color of my skin and my rather peculiar background as an Ethiopian immigrant delineated the border of my life and friendships. I learned quickly how to stand alone.

When I think of my work, I'm aware that I'm American and African at all points and times. And without a doubt, my experience and understanding of America was shaped by having immigrant parents.

Ethnic divisions can definitely be exacerbated by a lack of natural resources, but those tensions become violent when people manipulate them for their own political gain.

Peoria is such a seemingly quintessential American city, and I had always wanted to draw on that in either my fiction or in nonfiction. The Midwest is also a landscape that I have always been infatuated with, perhaps because it's the first one I can truly remember.

The Rwandan policy of putting the genocide behind them is incredibly effective in many ways. But it's also incredibly frightening to think that this nation is being asked put this mass slaughter behind them.

When I was growing up, Forest Park was full of integrated families. It was amazing. One my best friends was Vietnamese. Another one was half-Mexican, half-black. Another one was from Colombia. Another one was born in the U.S., but his mom was from Germany and spoke with a German accent. So we all had multiple identities.

Writers, especially those of us with roots in other countries, are rarely left to ourselves. We are asked to declare our allegiances, or they are determined for us.

Most of my favorite writers are over forty, and so I suppose I'll only name a few of the writers whose work I find myself constantly returning to: Edward P. Jones, Marilynne Robinson, Kazuo Ishiguro, V. S. Naipaul, Toni Morrison, and Philip Roth.

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I couldn't be more American if I tried. I was born in Ethiopia, but I was raised and educated as an American.

I couldn't be more American if I tried. I was born in Ethiopia, but I was raised and educated as an American.

I couldn't be more American if I tried. I was born in Ethiopia, but I was raised and educated as an American.

I couldn't be more American if I tried. I was born in Ethiopia, but I was raised and educated as an American.

I couldn't be more American if I tried. I was born in Ethiopia, but I was raised and educated as an American.

I couldn't be more American if I tried. I was born in Ethiopia, but I was raised and educated as an American.

I couldn't be more American if I tried. I was born in Ethiopia, but I was raised and educated as an American.

I couldn't be more American if I tried. I was born in Ethiopia, but I was raised and educated as an American.

I couldn't be more American if I tried. I was born in Ethiopia, but I was raised and educated as an American.

I couldn't be more American if I tried. I was born in Ethiopia, but I was raised and educated as an American.

I couldn't be more American if I tried. I was born in Ethiopia, but I was raised and educated as an American.

I couldn't be more American if I tried. I was born in Ethiopia, but I was raised and educated as an American.

I couldn't be more American if I tried. I was born in Ethiopia, but I was raised and educated as an American.

I couldn't be more American if I tried. I was born in Ethiopia, but I was raised and educated as an American.

I couldn't be more American if I tried. I was born in Ethiopia, but I was raised and educated as an American.