Mekiya Outini is an author, freelance editor, and co-founder of The DateKeepers, a full-service author support platform dedicated to elevating writers and creators around the world.
His short story "Baptism by Earth" won the 55th New Millennium Award in Fiction in 2023, and his work has appeared in Chautauqua, The Coachella Review, Willow Springs, and elsewhere. The first two chapters of his novel, Ashes, Ashes, can be read at The West Trade Review, and a chapter from his wife, Itto Outini’s memoir, which he is co-authoring, will appear in The North American Review in 2025. He holds an M.F.A. in fiction from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
At MacDowell, in addition to assisting with the completion of 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, charts his efforts to find his place in the society to which he nominally belongs, and explores the role that narratives, both false and true, play in identity formation writ large.
