Porochista Khakpour

Porochista Khakpour (born 1978) is an Iranian American novelist.

Born in Tehran, Iran, Khapour was raised in South Pasadena, California, later attending Sarah Lawrence College in New York for her BA. She received her MA from Johns Hopkins University (Writing Seminars). Khakpour was an arts and entertainment journalist early in her career. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, "The Chicago Reader", "The Village Voice", Paper, Nylon, "Flaunt", "Urb", "Bidoun" and nerve.com.

Her first novel, "Sons and Other Flammable Objects" (Grove/Atlantic) was published in September 2007 to great critical acclaim. The lyrical dark comedy, centered on the aftermath of 9/11 and Iranian fathers and sons in Los Angeles and New York, was a "New York Times" Editor's Choice and was included on the Chicago Tribune's 2007 Fall's Best list. It won the 77th annual California Book Award prize in First Fiction. She has been longlisted for the 2008 Dylan Thomas Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards for young writers. Her writing has been compared to that of Zadie Smith and Phillip Roth.

Khakpour currently lives in New York City.

External links

* [http://www.porochistakhakpour.com/ Khakpour's website]
* [http://www.apostrophecast.com/mp3s/episode18-porochistakhakpour.mp3 A Reading from Sons and Other Flammable Objects for Apostrophecast.com ]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/books/review/Budnitz-t.html New York Times Book Review of Sons and Other Flammable Objects]
* [http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/brieflynoted/2007/11/19/071119crbn_brieflynoted1 The New Yorker review]
* [http://articles.latimes.com/2007/12/02/calendar/ca-persianwomen2/ Los Angeles Times feature]
* [http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/food-vs-books-an-interview-with-porochista-khakpour/ Interview by Tao Lin]
* [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/24/DDGHRVQ55.DTL San Francisco Chronicle review]
* [http://www.iranian.com/main/2007/ultimate-saviors Iranian.com interview]
* [http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2007/10/12 Khakpour on Studio 360 with Kurt Anderson/ NPR interview]
* [http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2007/11/12/segments/88640/ Khakpour on The Leonard Lopate Show]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/opinion/20khakpour.html?partner=rssnyt/ NY Times Op-Ed Essay-"Summerscapes" series]