The writer of Befiker Menged, Alemayehu Gebrehiwot, is also a playwright and published poet. He has written and translated a number of plays for radio, television and stage of which many of them, including two children plays, were presented to the Ethiopian public. Three major works to mention are his Amharic translations of Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan (Setota), Tewfiq al Hakim’s The Sultan’s Dilemma (Menta Menged) and Arthur Miller’s family drama Death of a Salesman (Yeabawora Guzo). The former was staged at the Hager Fiker Theatre while the other two staged at the Ethiopian National Theatre. The production of Yeabawora Guzo was supported with a grant from the US Department of State and the play was also staged in Bahir Dar, Gondar, Jimma and Hawassa for college students and the general public.
Alemayehu published in 2006 a collection of Amharic poems, entitled Etalem, (The Endeared Sister). His several English poems are also included in Songs We Learn from Trees (Carcanet Press, 2020, edited by Beckett and Tebeje, UK). He has edited a book, YeEthiopia Muziqa Tarik (A History of Ethiopian Music) by Tesfaye Lemma published in both the US (2012) and Ethiopia (2018). In addition, he was a co-founder of a monthly Amharic magazine, Taza, focusing on culture and fine arts, published from September 2018 through August 2022.
