Author and CCNY writing professor Salar Abdoh. Photo by Mehri Rahimzadeh
The City College of New York MFA in Creative Writing program hosts the final event in its “Spotlight: Writers on Iran” series with author and Creative Writing Professor Salar Abdoh speaking about his latest novel “Out of Mesopotamia” in conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 6:30 p.m. in CCNY’s Shepard Hall, room 350. Click here to Register.
A New York Times Editor's Choice selection and Best Book of the Year by “Publishers Weekly,” “Out of Mesopotamia” is informed by Abdoh’s firsthand experience on the battlefronts of Iraq and Syria. It captures the horror, confusion, and absurdity of combat from a seldom-glimpsed perspective that expands our understanding of the war novel. The story depicts Saleh, a middle-aged Iranian journalist who moonlights as a writer for one of Iran's most popular TV shows, but cannot keep himself away from the front lines in neighboring Iraq and Syria.
Abdoh’s forthcoming book, “When a Woman Burns Herself,” is due out in September 2023. His previous books include “The Poet Game,” “Opium” and “Tehran at Twilight,” and he edited and translated “Tehran Noir.”
Cultural critic and author Chris Hedges was a foreign correspondent and bureau chief in the Middle East and the Balkans for 15 years for “The New York Times.” A member of the team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for “The New York Times’” coverage of global terrorism, he also received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. He is host of the Emmy Award¬-nominated RT America show “On Contact.” Hedges holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard University, and has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University, and the University of Toronto. He has been teaching college credit courses through Rutgers University in the NJ prison system since 2013.
The “Spotlight: Writers on Iran” series has featured award-winning novelists and academics Mikhal Dekel, Dalia Sofer and Amir Ahmadi, all of whose most recent works will be available for purchase at this event.
“Spotlight” is an ongoing series presented by CCNY’s Division of Humanities and the Arts and the MFA in Creative Writing which engages public figures in the most pressing conversations of our time, through the lens of literature and the arts.
For more information, contact Stewart Sinclair at
ssinclair@ccny.cuny.edu
About the City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization DegreeChoices ranks CCNY #3 nationally for social mobility. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Emsi puts at $1.9 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship.This year, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.
Thea Klapwald
e:
tklapwald@ccny.cuny.edu