Kaveh Akbar – författare

A young man uncovers the truth behind his mother’s death in this haunting debut that takes you from New York to Tehran.'Profoundly moving' Elif Shafak'Dazzling' Ann Patchett‘Gorgeous’ Tommy Orange‘Radiant’ Lauren Groff‘Stunning’ John Green‘Miraculous' The New York Times‘Sensational’ Daily Mail‘Kaleidoscopic’ The GuardianCyrus Shams has always been lost. He’s grown up tangled in the mysteries of his past – an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields, a haunting work of art by an exiled painter, and his mother, whose plane was shot down over the Persian Gulf when he was just a baby.Now, newly sober and maybe in love, he’s headed for an encounter that will transform everything he thought he knew. Can a final revelation change the truth of Cyrus's life?Electrifying and funny, Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! is an all-consuming debut.An instant New York Times BestsellerShortlisted for the Waterstones Debut PrizeBook of the Year in The Observer, The New York Times, and The New YorkerA National Book Award Finalist* Martyr! was an instant New York Times bestseller w/c 27/1/24

*AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021***Selected as one of TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2021**'Profound and singular, smart and sad and funny. . . We need Pilgrim Bell.' TOMMY ORANGEWith formal virtuosity and ruthless precision, Kaveh Akbar's second collection takes its readers on a spiritual journey of disavowal, fiercely attendant to the presence of divinity where artifacts of self and belonging have been shed. How does one recover from addiction without destroying the self-as-addict? And if living justly in a nation that would see them erased is, too, a kind of self-destruction, what does one do with the body's question, "what now shall I repair?" Here, Akbar responds with prayer as an act of devotion to dissonance - the infinite void of a loved one's absence, the indulgence of austerity, making a life as a Muslim in an Islamophobic nation - teasing the sacred out of silence and stillness.Richly crafted and generous, Pilgrim Bell's linguistic rigour is tuned to the register of this moment and any moment. As the swinging soul crashes into its limits, against the atrocities of the American empire, and through a profoundly human capacity for cruelty and grace, these brilliant poems dare to exist in the empty space where song lives - resonant, revelatory, and holy.America, I warn you, if you invite me into your homeI will linger,kissing my beloveds frankly,pulling up radishesand capping all your pens.There are no good kings,only burning palaces.-from 'The Palace''Very few living writers write so achingly toward God as Kaveh Akbar . . . each of the poems in this collection finds its target' LAUREN GROFF

A POETRY BOOK SOCIETY RECOMMENDATIONSHORTLISTED FOR THE FELIX DENNIS PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST COLLECTION 2018I could not be held responsiblefor desirehe could not be held at allTracking the joys and pains of the path through addiction, and wrestling with desire, inheritance and faith, Calling a Wolf a Wolf is the darkly sumptuous debut from award-winning poet Kaveh Akbar. These are powerful, intimate poems of thirst: for alcohol, for other bodies, for knowledge and for life.'The struggle from late youth on, with and without God, agony, narcotics and love, is a torment rarely recorded with such sustained eloquence and passion as you will find in this collection'FANNY HOWE'Compelling . . . strange . . . always beautiful' ROXANE GAY, AUTHOR OF BAD FEMINIST AND HUNGER'Truly brilliant'JOHN GREEN, AUTHOR OF THE FAULT IN OUR STARS'A breathtaking addition to the canon of addiction literature'PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (STARRED REVIEW)

'A profoundly valuable collection, full of fresh perspective, and opening doors into all kinds of material that has been routinely neglected or patronized' Rowan Williams, TLSThis rich and surprising anthology is a holistic, global survey of a lyric conversation about the divine, one which has been ongoing for millennia. Beginning with the earliest attributable author in all of human literature, the twenty-third century BCE Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna, and taking in a constellation of voices - from King David to Lao Tzu, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to the Malian Epic of Sundiata - this selection presents a number of canonical figures like Blake, Dickinson and Tagore, alongside lesser-anthologized, diverse poets going up to the present day. Together they show the breathtaking multiplicity of ways humanity has responded to the spiritual, across place and time.

Entering its seventeenth year, Best New Poets has established itself as a crucial venue for rising poets and a valuable resource for poetry lovers. The only publication of its kind, this annual anthology is made up exclusively of work by writers who have not yet published a full-length book. The poems included in this eclectic sampling represent the best from the many that have been nominated by the country’s top literary magazines and writing programs, as well as some two thousand additional poems submitted through an open online competition. The work of the fifty writers represented here provides the best perspective available on the continuing vitality of poetry as it is being practiced today.

”I förra numret fördjupade vi oss i hur poeterna berättar och dokumenterar. Det här dubbelnumret tar sig an dikten från en annan vinkel. För att komplettera frågan om hur poesin berättar, frågar sig dessa texter snarare hur den låter.” Ur numrets ledare Poesi av Hiba Abu Nada, Hanna Rajs, Fredrik Nyberg, Per Anders Ohlsson, Ann Jäderlund, Alice Oswald och Kalle Hedström Gustafsson. Texter av Jonas Ellerström, Isabella Nilsson, Tova Gerge, Vera Maria Monus, Jesper Olsson, Sofia Roberg, Khashayar Naderehvandi och Kaveh Akbar. Recensioner: Kristoffer Appelvik Lax om Mariam Naraghi, Erik Bergqvist om Ellen Nordmark, Tova Gerge om Magnus William-Olsson, Naima Chahboun om Lina Ekdahl & Thomas Tidholm, Arne Merlberg om Bengt Berg, Erik Lindman Mata om Imri Sandström.

Discover the life-affirming debut novel from acclaimed poet Kaveh Akbar: a love letter to the world and our search for meaning - in faith, art, ourselves and those we care for. 'Dazzling' Ann Patchett‘Profoundly moving' Elif Shafak‘Gorgeous’ Tommy Orange‘Radiant’ Lauren Groff‘Stunning’ John Green‘Miraculous' The New York Times‘Sensational’ Daily Mail‘Kaleidoscopic’ The GuardianCyrus Shams has always been lost. He’s grown up tangled in the mysteries of his past – an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields, a haunting work of art by an exiled painter, and his mother, whose plane was shot down over the Persian Gulf when he was just a baby. Now, newly sober and maybe in love, he’s headed for an encounter that will transform everything he thought he knew. Can a final revelation change the truth of Cyrus's life?Electrifying, funny, and all-consuming, Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! is a masterpiece.A Book of the Year in The Observer, The New York Times, TIME, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic and The New Yorker, and shorlisted for the Waterstones Debut Prize for Fiction