'Tehran Noir' and 'Tehran at Twilight'
VIEW EVENT DETAILSA conversation with Salar Abdoh, editor of 'Tehran Noir' and author of 'Tehran at Twilight'
Join Iranian writer and editor Salar Abdoh (The Poet's Game) for a conversation with poet, author, and activist Roya Hakakian (Journey from the Land of No and Assassins of the Turquoise Palace) on a new anthology of Iranian and Iranian American writing, Tehran Noir, edited by Abdoh, and his new novel Tehran at Twilight. A book sale and signing will follow the program.
The anthology Tehran Noir, the latest in the Akashic Noir Series, features new stories of crime and mystery from notable Iranian American and Iranian writers. The majority of contributors to Tehran Noir are resident in Iran, providing an insider’s perspective through the lens of the “noir” genre. Writers include Gina Nahai, Lily Farhapour, Azardokht Bahrami, Yourik Karim-Masihi, Vali Khalili, Farhaad Heidari Gooran, Aida Moradi Ahani, Mahsa Mohebali, Majed Neisi, Danial Haghighi, Javad Afhami, Sima Saeedi, Mahak Taheri, and Hoseein Abkenar. Their stories offer an unflinching fictional exploration of the underbelly of Tehran, where crime, corruption, and vice plumb the depths while a Morality Police imposes a propriety which runs up against the brutal vitality of a living city.
Abdoh’s latest novel Tehran at Twilight is a compelling tale of friendship, betrayal, and international intrigue against a backdrop of intrigue, political repression, and the ever-present threat of violence. Abdoh’s book also offers a telling glimpse into contemporary Tehran and spins a compelling morality tale of identity and exile, the bonds of friendship, and the limits of loyalty.
Read Salar Abdoh's foreword to Tehran Noir
Shop AsiaStore for Tehran Noir and Tehran at Twilight
"Tehran — bloated, capricious, corrupt, and with its various secret police agencies competing against one another — becomes a ripe setting for this roman noir . . . Move over Scandinavia: there’s a new kid on the noir block.”
— Hooman Majd, author of The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay
Salar Abdoh was born in Iran, and splits his time between Tehran and New York City, where he is co-director of the Creative Writing MFA Program at the City College of New York. He is the author of The Poet Game: A Novel and Opium. His essays and short stories have appeared in various publications, including the New York Times, BOMB, Callaloo, Guernica, La Régle du Jeu, Drawbridge, and the BBC. He is the recipient of the NYFA Prize and the National Endowment for the Arts award.
Roya Hakakian is an Iranian American poet and writer whose essays appear in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal and she is the author of the memoir Journey from the Land of No and the thriller Assassins of the Turquoise Palace. A founding member of the Iranian Human Rights Documentation Center she also serves on the board of Refugees International, Hakakian is currently a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
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Related video:
Watch Salar Abdoh and other writers in the Asia Society program Shattering the Stereotypes Of Iran and Iranians Through Fiction on December 4, 2013.