Dinaw Mengestu in Conversation

In late January, author Dinaw Mengestu spoke at New York City's Bernie Wohl Center as part of the Goddard Riverside Community Center's Big Read kick-off event. We've excerpted a piece of a longer conversation with host Cary Barbor, where Mengestu delves into the importance of melancholy and loss in our lives and in his writing. Additionally, he shares some fascinating backstory to his novel The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, which is the focus of Goddard Riverside's Big Read program. My favorite moment is when he quotes a line from another Big Read selection (and one of my favorite books of all time), Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping. "Facts tell you nothing. If anything, it's facts that need explaining."  Dinaw Mengestu on Melancholy, Joy, and his Big Read Book