The College of Arts and Sciences' MFA in Creative Writing Program will present “Reasons of State: War, Art, and Incarceration, Seen From Iran” on Thursday, March 10 at 7:30 p.m.
I鈥檓 thrilled by the line-up we have this semester.
鈥 Phil Klay, National Book Award-winning author and professor in the MFA in Creative Writing program
Led by Phil Klay, National Book Award-winning author and professor in the MFA in Creative Writing program, the first panel discussion event of three in this semester’s Inspired Writers Series will feature Amir Ahmadi Arian and Salar Abdoh. Both are Iranian authors whose work has tackled war, incarceration, repression, the power of the state, and what global violence and geopolitics look like from an Iranian perspective.
“I’m thrilled by the line-up we have this semester,” said Klay, a veteran himself who is also at the helm of the Fairfield MFA veterans’ community. “We have two outstanding Iranian novelists whose work deals with war, political violence, repression and incarceration.”
Ahmadi Arian is an Iranian writer, the author of Then The Fish Swallowed Him (Harper 2020). His essays and short stories have appeared in The New York Times, Paris Review, New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, and elsewhere. Currently, he teaches literature and creative writing at City College and Baruch College, New York.
Salar Abdoh is an Iranian novelist, essayist, and journalist who lives in Tehran and New York City, and also teaches at the MFA program at the City College of the City University of New York. His novels are The Poet Game, Opium, Tehran At Twilight and most recently Out of Mesopotamia. He is also the editor and translator of the collection, Tehran Noir.
A companion speaker series to the MFA program, Inspired Writers Series events are designed to not only provide encouragement and inspiration for writers, but also to inform, entertain, and enlighten any participant with lively discussions from top authors. All events are free and open to the public.
Later in April and in May, Klay will host two other events featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and memoirist and novelist and essayist .
“We have Pardlo, whose work is vital for understanding contemporary American identity,” Klay said. “And we have Tara Isabella Burton, who has written piercingly about unique forms of American religious expression both inside and outside of traditional religion,” he went on. “I think the lineup will tackle so many of the most critical issues affecting Americans, and the most critical issues for understanding our troubled world more broadly.”
For information about the Inspired Writers Series, please visit
