Kaveh Akbar
Akbar in 2016
Akbar in 2016
BornKaveh Akbar (کاوه اکبر)
(1989-01-15) 15 January 1989
Tehran, Iran
OccupationPoet, novelist
NationalityIranian-American
Notable worksMartyr! Calling a Wolf a Wolf Pilgrim Bell
SpousePaige Lewis
Website
kavehakbar.com

Kaveh Akbar (کاوه اکبر) is an Iranian-American writer.[1]

Early life and education

Akbar was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1989,.[2] He moved to the United States when he was two years old,[3] and grew up across the United States including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Indiana.[4]

Akbar received his bachelor's degree from Purdue, his MFA from Butler University, and his PhD in creative writing from Florida State University.[5][6][7][8]

Works

Akbar is a faculty member at University of Iowa and formerly Purdue University.[9] He also teaches in the low-residency fine art programs at Randolph College and Warren Wilson College.

He is the author of the chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic, published by Sibling Rivalry Press, Calling a Wolf a Wolf, published by Alice James Books in the US and Penguin Books in the UK, and Pilgrim Bell published by Graywolf Press. Of Portrait of the Alcoholic, American poet Patricia Smith said: "Kaveh Akbar has written one of the best books of poetry I've ever read."

In 2014, he founded the poetry interview website Divedapper. He uses the website to give contemporary poets a space to share their stories and their writing.[10] In 2018, NPR called Akbar "poetry's biggest cheerleader".[11] In 2020, he was named Poetry Editor of The Nation, a position previously held by Langston Hughes, Anne Sexton, and William Butler Yeats.

Akbar's poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Poetry Magazine, Best American Poetry, The New Republic, Paris Review, PBS NewsHour,[10] Tin House, and elsewhere.[12][13][14] With Ocean Vuong, he wrote poems for the 2018 film The Kindergarten Teacher, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal.[15]

In 2019, The New Yorker published an online feature around Akbar's long poem "The Palace", and announced that his second full-length poetry collection, Pilgrim Bell, would be published in 2021 by Graywolf Press.[16] In 2022, Penguin Classics published The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 110 Poets on the Divine, edited by Kaveh Akbar.[17]

His forthcoming novel, Martyr!, is an autobiographical narrative.[18]

Personal life

Akbar is in recovery and writes openly about his struggles with addiction.[19] In an interview with the Paris Review, he cites poetry as helping with his sobriety, saying, "Early in recovery, it was as if I'd wake up and ask, How do I not accidentally kill myself for the next hour? And poetry, more often than not, was the answer to that."[20]

In 2018, he married the American poet Paige Lewis.[21]

Awards and honors

Bibliography

Fiction

  • Martyr!. Knopf. 2024. ISBN 9780593537619.

Poetry

Collections
  • Pilgrim Bell. Graywolf Press. 2021. ISBN 978-1-64445-059-8.
  • Calling a Wolf a Wolf. Alice James Books. 2017. ISBN 978-1938584671.
  • Portrait of the Alcoholic. Sibling Rivalry Press. 2017. ISBN 978-1943977277.
Anthologies edited
  • The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 110 Poets on the Divine. Penguin Classics. 2023. ISBN 9780241391587.
  • Another Last Call: Poems on Addiction and Deliverance. Sarabande. 2023. ISBN 9780241391587.
List of poems
Title Year First published Reprinted/collected
My Empire 2021 Akbar, Kaveh (April 5, 2021). "My Empire". The New Yorker. 97 (7): 52–53.

References

  1. ↑ Frank, Priscilla (January 30, 2017). "Read These Poems By Writers From Each of the Muslim Ban Countries". HuffPost. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  2. ↑ "About Kaveh Akbar". Academy of American Poets.
  3. ↑ Akbar, Kaveh (September 12, 2017). "How I Found Poetry in Childhood Prayer". LitHub. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Kaveh Akbar interview". Fields magazine. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  5. ↑ Brouk, Story and photos by Tim. "Kaveh Akbar creates art with meter and phrase". Journal and Courier.
  6. ↑ "Kaveh Akbar MFA '15 Awarded Prestigious Poetry Fellowship – Stories".
  7. ↑ "People | English". University of Iowa. Retrieved August 30, 2022.
  8. ↑ Colegrove, Jessie (September 11, 2020). "Kaveh Akbar named poetry editor for The Nation | The English Department". english.fsu.edu.
  9. ↑ "Kaveh Akbar - College of Liberal Arts - Purdue University". cla.purdue.edu.
  10. 1 2 Harriet Staff (January 5, 2016). "Kaveh Akbar Reads "Palmyra" at PBS NewsHour". Poetry Foundation. Archived from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  11. ↑ Verma, Jeevika (January 14, 2018). "Kaveh Akbar Is Poetry's Biggest Cheerleader". NPR.
  12. ↑ "Read poems from the 7 countries affected by Trump's immigration ban". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  13. ↑ "The Well Review: an arts journal springs up in Cork". The Irish Times. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  14. ↑ Frank, Priscilla (February 7, 2017). "American Orchestras Are Celebrating Refugees And Immigrants Through Song". HuffPost. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  15. ↑ Alter, Alexandra (November 23, 2018). "Hollywood Has Long Turned to Novelists for Help. But Poets?". The New York Times.
  16. ↑ Akbar, Kaveh (April 18, 2019). "The Palace". The New Yorker.
  17. ↑ "The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse". Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  18. ↑ https://lithub.com/see-the-cover-for-kaveh-akbars-novel-martyr/
  19. ↑ Christian Arthur (April 6, 2017). "Kaveh Akbar Maps Unprecedented Experience in 'Portrait of the Alcoholic'". The Fix. Archived from the original on August 1, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  20. ↑ "Poetry is Doing Great: An Interview with Kaveh Akbar". Paris Review. August 18, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  21. ↑ "Paige Lewis & Kaveh Akbar". the Elliott Bay Book Company. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  22. ↑ "Kaveh Akbar's poem awarded a Pushcart Prize". Retrieved September 11, 2017 – via Facebook.
  23. ↑ "Butler Newsroom | Kaveh Akbar MFA '15 Awarded Prestigious Poetry Fellowship". Butler University. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
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