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 longlisted for the 2025 VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. She received her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her short fiction has appeared in Guernica, McSweeney’s, Callaloo, The Bare Life Review, Joyland Magazine, and other literary publications. She has served as visiting faculty at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and taught fiction at the University of Iowa, for the International Writing Program, and for The Writer’s Center in Bethesda.  Afabwaje divides her time between Washington, D.C., and the Midwest. ​