Salar Abdoh is an
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
novelist and essayist. He is the author of the novels The
Poet Game (2000),
Opium
Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
(2004), Tehran At Twilight (2014), and the editor and translator of the anthology
Tehran Noir (2014). He is also a director of the graduate program in Creative Writing at the City College of New York at the City University of New York.
Early life
Salar Abdoh 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 ...
, Iran and also spent some time in England. When Abdoh was fourteen his family was forced to leave Iran for the US. Abdoh earned an undergraduate degree from
U.C. Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...
and received a Master's from the
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
.
Career
Abdoh's first novel, ''The Poet Game'', focuses on a young agent sent by a top-secret Iranian government agency to infiltrate a group of Islamic extremists in New York in order to keep them from acts of terror that might draw the US into a war in the Middle East. Though the book was published in 2000, it received far greater attention following the
September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. His second novel, ''Opium'' (2004) tells the story of a young American who used to work as a drug-runner along the Afghan/Iran border during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Years later, living in New York and trying to keep a low profile, his past suddenly catches up with him as the US is gearing up to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. Abdoh has also published short stories and essays on war and politics in numerous journals; in 2010 he edited ''Callaloo'' Journal's issue of Middle East and North Africa writers. For his prose he has won the New York Foundation for the Arts award in 2008 and the National Endowment for the Arts award in 2010.
Abdoh also co-wrote the play ''Quotations from a Ruined City'' with his older brother,
Reza Abdoh
Reza is a Persian name, originating from the Arabic word , ''Riḍā'', which literally means "the fact of being pleased or contented; contentment, approval". In religious context, this name is interpreted as ''satisfaction'' or "''perfect content ...
, the world famous avant-garde theater director. The play was first produced in 1994.
References
External links
On taking a bullet for another in warOn the fight against ISIS at Tel AfarOn homelessness and hunger in AmericaOn being a female journalist in TehranArticle on Martyrs and commandersArticle on cost of war in the Middle EastAuthor statement on the writing of Tehran At TwilightSalar Abdoh's introduction to the Tehran Noir anthology: The Seismic CityAn Article by Salar Abdoh about a public execution in TehranSalar Abdoh about covering the 'War on Drugs' in AfghanistanFiction by Salar Abdoh about the Iran-Iraq WarSalar Abdoh on Majed Neisi about the Afghan civil warSalar Abdoh on the 2009 demonstrations in TehranFiction by Salar Abdoh in Tremors-Anthology of Iranian-American Fiction, Asia Society, 2013Faber & Faber author pageInterviewEssay on September 11* Three part series of articles on Iran:
*
Moving Violations*
Vanishing Point*
Irrational Waiting* NEA Writer's Corner Writer's Statement
**
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdoh, Salar
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Iranian emigrants to the United States
University of California, Berkeley alumni
City College of New York alumni
Writers from Tehran
Iranian male short story writers
21st-century Iranian short story writers
21st-century American male writers