Amir Hassan Cheheltan ( fa, امیرحسن چهل‌تن); (born 1956) is an Iranian

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

. He has published 12 novels, 6 volumes of short stories and a screenplay of which some are banned in Iran and many of them are translated into English, German, Italian, Norwegian, Lithuanian, Arabic and Hebrew.

Life

Cheheltan was born in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

in 1956 to parents with an interest in classical

Persian literature Persian literature ( fa, ادبیات فارسی, Adabiyâte fârsi, ) comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources h ...

. After graduating from a mathematics high school, he studied

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

and after the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...

of 1979, he left Iran for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

to keep studying. After his studies he served in the military during the

Iran Iraq war Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Literary career

His first work was a collection of stories, ''Sigheh'' (Temporary Wife), which was released in 1976. Later he wrote his first novel, ''The Mourning of Qassem'', that was only to be published until in 2003, twenty years after it was completed. Due to a difficult situation for the countries intellectuals, he fled Iran in 1999 and only returned two years later. He has been an guest at the International Literature Festival of Berlin for several years and his essays have been published in German newspapers such as the

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

and

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...

. He has received scholarships from the German

Heinrich Böll Foundation The Heinrich Böll Foundation (german: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung e.V., HBS) is a German, legally independent political foundation. Affiliated with the German Green Party, it was founded in 1997 when three predecessors merged. The foundation was n ...

, the

Ledig House Art Omi, formerly Omi International Arts Center, is a non-profit international arts organization located in Columbia County in Ghent, New York. The organization provides residencies for writers, artists, architects, musicians, dancers and chore ...

in Belgium or the

Villa Aurora The Villa Aurora at 520 Paseo Miramar is located in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles and has been used as an artists' residence since 1995. It is the former home of the German-Jewish author Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta. The Feuchtwangers ...

in California.

Works

novels

* ''The Mourning of Qassem'', Now, Tehran 1984 * ''Hall of Mirrors'', Beh-negar, Tehran, 1991 * ''Tehran, City without Sky'', Negah, Tehran, 2002 * ''Love and the Incomplete Woman'', Negah, Tehran, 2003. * ''Iranian Dawn'', Negah, Tehran, 2005 * ''Tehran, Revolution Street'', Kirchheim, München, 2009 * ''American Killing in Tehran'', C.H. Beck, München, 2011 * ''The Calligrapher of Isfahan'', C.H. Beck, München, 2015 * ''The Persistent Parrot'', Matthes & Seitz, Berlin, 2018 * ''The Circle of Literature Lovers'', C.H. Beck, München, 2020 * ''A love in Cairo'', C.H. Beck, München, 2022

short stories

* ''Temporary Wife'', Bu-ali, Tehran, 1976 * ''Relic-cloth on the Shrine's Steel Grillwork'', Rawagh, Tehran, 1978 * ''No One Called me Anymore'', Negah, Tehran, 1993 * ''Not Long remains till Tomorrow'', Negah, Tehran, 1998 * ''Five O'clock is too Late to Die'', Negah, Tehran, 2002 * ''Several Unbelievable Truths'', Negah, Tehran, 2017

Awards

International Literature Award International Literature Award (''German'': Internationaler Literaturpreis – Haus der Kulturen der Welt) is a German literary award for international prose translated into German for the first time.1956 births Writers from Tehran 20th-century Iranian writers Living people Iranian male novelists 21st-century Iranian writers Iranian male short story writers Iranian writers in German 20th-century short story writers 20th-century novelists 21st-century novelists 21st-century short story writers Iranian expatriates in Germany Iranian military personnel of the Iran–Iraq War Iranian expatriates in the United Kingdom