Hossein Abkenar
Hossein Mortezaeian Abkenar is an Iranian fiction writer and screenwriter. His 2006 novel, A Scorpion on the Steps of Andimeshk Railroad Station, received numerous awards and has been translated into multiple languages. Abkenar’s short story collection, The French Perfume, won the Yalda Literature Award for the year’s best short story collection in 2003. His screenplay, No One Knows About Persian Cats, earned a prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. His books are banned in Iran, where they have been stripped from bookstores and libraries. He received a scholarship from Harvard University in 2013–14 and moved to the US. Between 2014 and 2017 he was a fellow at the Beverly Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute at UNLV. During these fellowship years, he has been working on his novel, Darkness. Darkness 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, sexual discrimination, and sexual violence.
CV:
Education
B.A. Dramatic Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Tehran: 1991-1995
He has been teaching courses in creative writing at the Art University, Faculty of Theater and Cinema, and in other institutions.
Publications
Novels
· Darkness (novel), Alqesseh (banned by the Iranian government from reissue)
· Scorpion on the steps of Andimeshk Train Station, or Blood's dripping from this train, 2006, Ney Publishing House (banned by the Iranian government from reissue)
Short Story Collections
· The French Perfume, Ghesseh Press, 2003. (banned by the Iranian government from reissue)
· The Concert of Forbidden Tars, Agah Press,1999. (banned by the Iranian government from reissue)
Critic and Introduction
· An Introduction to Iranian Fiction and Playwriting ( 1871-1921), National Academy of Literature, 2010.
Selected Short Stories Published in Journals
· Second Slice of Darkness, Michigan Quarterly Review, Issue 57:6 (Spring 2019),
https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2019/04/second-slice-of-darkness/
· The Story of the Stone, Ploughshares, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Winter 2018-19), pp. 1-4,
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26557515
· A Slice of Darkness, Words without Borders, November 1st, 2017,
· Scorpion(a few chapters of the novel) and ‘Tank’ Consequence magazine, (short story) 2015,
https://www.consequenceforum.org/printjournals/p/volume6
· Classmates, Witness magazine, 2015,
https://witness.blackmountaininstitute.org/issues-4-2/volume-28-no-1-spring-2015/classmates/
· “Not Every Bullet Is Meant for a King”, Tehran Noir (Iran), Anthology, Ed. Salar Abdoh, Akashic Books, 2014,
https://www.akashicbooks.com/catalog/tehran-noir-iran/
· Rahman’s story (short story), Words without Borders, 2013,
https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/article/2013-07/rahmans-story/
Selected Film Scripts
· The Tired, Dir. by Ebrahim Saeedi, Premiered in Locarno Film Festival, 2010.
· No One knows about the Persian Cats, Dir. Bahman Ghobadi, Premiered and awarded a prize at the Cannes Film Festival, 2009.
Translations
Scorpion on the steps of Andimeshk Train Station, or Blood's dripping from this train:
· Skorpion, German trasnlation , P. Kirshheim Publishers, January 2013.
http://www.kirchheimverlag.de/index/startframe.htm
http://www.kirchheimverlag.de/index/startframe.htm
· Excerpts translated into German, Lettre International Literary Magazine, Volume 97. Summer,2012.
https://www.lettre.de/beitrag/abkenar-hossein-m_der-skorpion
· Le Scorpion, French translation, by Lucile Martin, Editions de l'Oeuvre. January 2011,
https://halldulivre.com/livre/9782356310934-le-scorpion-hossein-mortezaeian-abkenar/
· Dopeshk, Kurdish translation by Baroj Akray, Aras Editions, 2011
· Alaqrab, Arabic translation by Hossein Torfi Alivi, Shahryar Edition, 2017
· Iranian modernist novel three big ones, Chinese translation by Mu Hongyan, China Reading News ( 2017-08-23 06 edition) 2019.
http://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2020/0719/c404092-31788775.html
Selected Fellowships, Awards and Honors
· City of Asylum Fellow, Black Mountain Institute, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2015-2018
· Scholars at Risk Fellowship at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study: 2013-2014
· Scorpion on the steps of Andimeshk Train Station, or Blood's dripping from this train (novel): Best Novel, Golshiri Literary Award (2006); Best Novel, Mehregan Literary Award (2006); Best Novel, Distinguished Fiction of the Year Award (2006)
· French Perfume (short story collection): Best Short Story Collection, Yalda Literary Award (2003)
Talks
· Resistance and Reimagine Festival, PEN AMERICA, New York, February 2018
· Meditations on Exile, La Maison Francaise of NYU, April 2018
· American Dreams Festival, UNLV Black Mountain Institute, Las Vegas, 2017
https://lithub.com/celebrating-literature-interrogating-american-dreams-in-sin-city/
· War in Iranian Literature, Stanford University, Department of Iranian Studies, October 2015
https://iranian-studies.stanford.edu/events/lecture-series/war-iranian-literature
· Storytelling and Wordcraft in Persian, UC Irvine University, Samuel Jordan Center for Persian Studies, October 2015
And
For two years he was a member of the editorial staff of the Iranian literary magazine Karnameh, whose publication was halted by the government.
For several years this writer’s books have been banned in Iran, and they have been removed from the shelves of libraries and bookstores.
