Mekiya Outini is an author, editor, and educator. His fiction and nonfiction can be read in The North American Review, Fourth Genre, Modern Literature, The Coachella Review, Chautauqua, MQR, Hidden Peak, The Stonecoast Review, Lotus-Eater, DarkWinter, Gargoyle, Sortes, and elsewhere. He’s grateful to Alexis Williams for selecting his story “Baptism by Earth” as first-place winner of the 55th New Millennium Award and to the team at The West Trade Review for showcasing two chapters from his novel, Ashes, Ashes. He's a co-founder of The DateKeepers, an author support platform, and a co-host of Let’s Have a Renaissance: The DateKeepers Podcast. He holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Arkansas.
At MacDowell, in addition to assisting with the completion of his wife, Itto’s memoir, Outini drafted four new essays, revised three more, and left Peterborough with most of a manuscript in hand. This collection recounts his upbringing in what might be called a cult if his parents weren't the only two members and his integration into mainstream society and explores the role that narratives, both false and true, play in identity formation.
