Kaveh Akbar

Kaveh Akbar is an Iranian-American poet, novelist and editor, born in Tehran in 1989. ¹ He is the author of the poetry collections Calling a Wolf a Wolf and Pilgrim Bell and of the novel Martyr!, a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist. ¹ He directs the University of Iowa's undergraduate creative writing programme and is poetry editor of The Nation. ¹

Akbar was born in Tehran, Iran, on 15 January 1989, to an Iranian father and a German-American mother. ¹ His family returned to the United States when he was two years old, and he grew up in several states, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Indiana. ¹ He took his bachelor's degree at Purdue University, his MFA at Butler University and his doctorate in creative writing at Florida State University. ¹ He is married to the poet Paige Lewis. ¹

Akbar has spoken openly about his religious upbringing and practice. In a 2021 interview he said he was raised Muslim in a family that was, in his words, "pretty far on the secular side of Islam", and that in getting sober from alcohol addiction he began to connect with Islam in a way he never had before. ² In another 2021 interview he said: "I identify as a Muslim, though there are plenty of Muslims in the world who would not approve of me being one." ³ No source names a school or branch for him, and the museum records his faith as unknown, preserving his own words here.

Akbar received a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship in 2016, and his chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic appeared in 2017, followed the same year by his first full collection, Calling a Wolf a Wolf. ¹ His second collection, Pilgrim Bell (2021), was named a best book of the year by Time, The Guardian and NPR. ¹ His debut novel, Martyr!, was published in 2024, became a New York Times bestseller and was shortlisted for the National Book Award. ¹ He founded the interview magazine Divedapper and serves as poetry editor of The Nation. ¹ In 2024 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and was named to the TIME100 Next list. ¹

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