Kaveh Akbar

National Book Award Finalist

Kaveh Akbar is an Iranian-American poet and author of Martyr!, one of the most critically-acclaimed and bestselling novels of 2024. He is also the author of two poetry collections, Pilgrim Bell and Calling a Wolf a Wolf, as well as a chapbook, Portrait of the Alcoholic. In addition, Akbar is the editor of The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 100 Poets on the Divine.

The author’s debut novel, Martyr!, was shortlisted for the National Book Award, named one of The New York Times’ 10 best books of the year, and selected as a TIME must-read book of the year. The story follows a newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, who, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original, Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction. “Martyr! is so much its own creation that comparisons don’t help,” says NPR.

Akbar was born in Tehran, Iran, and now lives in Iowa City where he is the Director of the English and Creative Writing and an Associate Professor at the University of Iowa. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. He serves as poetry editor of The Nation and founded Divedapper, an online resource for dialogues with the most vital voices in American poetry.