Mikael Merissa is a novelist based in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Born in Ethiopia and raised in the United States, his work explores exile, memory, masculinity and the tensions between ambition and return.

He practiced immigration law for more than two decades before turning to fiction.

His completed novel, The Suicide Notes, examines identity, faith and political longing in the Ethiopian Diaspora. He is currently at work on a second novel, The Blue Horses.