Kaveh Akbar
Introduction
Kaveh Akbar (born in Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian-American poet and scholar. He is the author of Calling a Wolf a Wolf, published by Alice James Books in the US and Penguin Books in the UK, and the chapbook, Portrait of the Alcoholic. In 2014, he founded the poetry interview website Divedapper. He received his MFA from Butler University, and his Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Florida State University. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Purdue University MFA program.
Biography
His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, The American Poetry Review, PBS NewsHour, Boston Review, Tin House, and elsewhere. Akbar founded the website Divedapper.com, where he interviews major voices in contemporary American poetry, and he is a member of the collective podcast All Up in Your Ears. On September 1, 2016, Akbar was awarded the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation.
Awards and honors
- Winner of a 2017 Pushcart Prize
- 2016 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship
Selected poems
- "What Use is Knowing Anything if No One is Around, The New Yorker, June 2017
- "Despite My Efforts Even My Prayers Have Turned into Threats", Poetry, November 2016
- "My Kingdom for a Murmur of Fanfare", Poetry, November 2016
- "Portrait of the Alcoholic Floating in Space with Severed Umbilicus", Poetry, October 2016
- "Palmyra", PBS News Hour, December 2015