Mengestu Nominated for First-Book Award

Novelist Dinaw Mengestu’s debut novel, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, has been nominated for the Guardian First Book Award, which was established in 1999 to “reward the finest new literary talent with a £10,000 prize for an author’s first book.” The novel (retitled Children of the Revolution in the U.K.) is set in pre-gentrification Logan Circle; more info on the prize is here, and an interview with Mengestu is here. In February this blog featured a photo essay related to the book.