Azaries Dessie

Azaries Dessie is a poet and author with an unusual life story. He was born in Wondegeri, a rural area near Gondar, in 1991.

In 2006, when he was around 15 years old, he published his first poetry book, Arimat. Most of the poems were written when he was 14 or younger. Because of this, he became one of the youngest published poets in Ethiopia, even younger than the well-known poet Tagel Seifu, who published his first work at 16.

But publishing Arimat also brought difficulties. While focusing deeply on poetry and art, he lost focus in school and failed the national matric exam. After that, he joined a TVET program in Debre Tabor, but he was unhappy there. In late 2010, he left both the school and the city without hesitation.

He then moved to Addis Ababa with the dream of publishing his second book. Soon, he realized life in Addis was much harder than he expected. He had no money and no support, so he decided to work and learn practical skills.

While working at Aesop Book Store, he began learning graphic design. Later, he earned an HNS diploma and a Computer Science degree from CPU College over the next eight years.

Although he came to Addis Ababa only to publish books and improve himself, his journey led him to build a printing company called Maleda Printing. It was like asking for a bottle of water and ending up owning a whole water factory.
Recently, he published two books within seven days.

The first is HALWOT, a poetry collection containing 63 poems written over the last five years.

The second is Karamon – Pigeon and Falcon, a suspense and quest novel that opens the way for future stories in the series.He personally produced both books. Today, Azaries is the owner of Maleda Printing and Sigwan Universe, despite arriving in Addis Ababa with no money.

Karamon also includes a unique QR code system. Every reader receives a different copy that can be verified through . And this QR code includes unique technology that might protect authors’ copyright patents. Most authors suffer from unauthorized copy releases. So, Azaries finds a solution through technology.

Meanwhile, HALWOT is being translated into English for international publication.