Introducing Ethiopian Literature Amharic Literature: The past, the present, the future. I have been asked to introduce in brief about Ethiopian Literature. But I make a shift to Amharic Literature for several reasons:  Firstly, Ethiopian literature includes the litratures of the different nations and nationalities of Ethiopia, such as Afan oromo literature, Tigrigna Literature, Gurage Literature etc, and I don’t have the data for these literatures.  Secondly, for so many historical reasons, Amharic literature is one of the most privileged literatures of the Ethiopian literature, discussing Amharic lit. can be some what considered as discussing Ethiopian Literature.  Thirdly, every writer from different nations and nationalities contributed a lot to the development of Amharric literature. For instance, Bealu Girma, Tsegaye Gebre Medhin, Solomon Deresa, Serek Daniel are from the Oromo People; but they are some of the most important Amharic authors. Tsegaye is a play wright and a poet who wrote more than 20 Amharic plays and an antology of poems in Amharic. Bealu is a novelist who wrote six novels and a short story in Amharic. Solomon Deresa is a poet and critic who wrote antologies of poems; Serk Daniel is also a young novelist and short story writer who wrote in Amharic. Sebhat Gebre-Egziabher is from Tigre, but he writes four novels and many short stories in Amharic. Sahlesilassie Birhane-mariam is from Gurage but he wrote novels in Amharic. Other writers from different nations have also written in Amharic. Therefore they are not only the Amharas who contributed to the development of Amharic Literature.  Fourthly, the Amharic literature writers do not only reflect the Amhara culture. Rather they write about the life of the different nations and nationalities of Ethiopia. For instance, The novelist Fikre Markos Desta, represented the way of life of the Hammer people is the serious novels entitled kebuska Bestejerba(At the back of Mountain Buska), Evangadi( the name of the cultural Dance), Yezersiwoch Fekir( The love of The Zersis) and Achame( named after the main character). The short stories entitled, Achanbo( named after the character), and Dur yabebe Fikir( Love that Grows in the Forest) also discuss the marriage of different nations and nationalities. Haddis Alemayehu also chose Supe-Boru, a district in the region of Oromia, as a setting for his novel Wonjelegnaw Dagna(The Criminal Judje). So does Bealu Girma. Totally because of the reasons I will dare say that Amharic literature is one of the most important literatures of Ethiopia; and discussing about Amharic literature tells much about the Ethiopian Literature. As stated above, Ethiopian literature today includes the literatures of the different nations and nationalities. There are Tigrigna literature, Afan Oromo Literature, Gurage Literature, Amharic Literature etc. Among these literatures, Amharic is the dominant one for historical reasons. The other nations and nationalities literature did not have opportunities to grow parallel to Amharic literature. Of course, today these literatures are developing fast. Poems, plays, novels and short stories are being written in Afan Oromo, 1