Photo credit: Jaimy Ellis

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​Afabwaje Kurian is the author of the novel BEFORE THE MANGO RIPENS, which was a finalist for the 2025 Aspen Words Literary Prize and has been longlisted for the 2025 VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. She received her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her short fiction has been published in Guernica, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Callaloo, The Bare Life Review, Joyland Magazine, and other literary publications. She has taught fiction at the University of Iowa, for the International Writing Program, and for The Writer’s Center. Born in Jos, Nigeria, and raised in Maryland and Ohio, Afabwaje now divides her time between Washington, D.C., and the Midwest. ​