Fellowship / Fellows

Hossein Mortezaeian Abkenar

  • 2013–2014
  • Fiction & Poetry
  • Independent Writer (Iran)
Headshot of Hossein Mortezaeian Abkenar
Photo by Tony Rinaldo

This information is accurate as of the fellowship year indicated for each fellow.

Hossein Mortezaeian Abkenar is an Iranian writer. He wrote the screenplay for the film No One Knows about Persian Cats, directed by Bahman Ghobadi and awarded the Special Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Le scorpion (Editions de l’Oeuvre, 2011) is his first book published in French.

At Radcliffe, Abkenar is writing a novel that covers three decades in Iran’s history and takes a fresh look at Iranian society—particularly women’s issues, revolution, the war, political and social crises, sex discrimination, and sexual violence—from a cultural standpoint. He is focusing on the plot design for this new novel and on researching historical facts.

Abkenar’s novel A Scorpion on the Steps of Andimeshk Railroad Station, published in 2006, won the Mehregan Adab Award and the Hooshang Golshiri Award for the best first novel and the Vaav Award for the year’s most unique novel. That book has been translated into French, German, and Kurdish. He earned his BA in dramatic arts from the University of Tehran.

Our 2023–2024 Fellows

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