Kaveh Akbar is the author of Martyr!, a New York Times bestselling novel and National Book Award finalist. Born in Tehran, Iran, in 1989, Akbar is an acclaimed Iranian-American poet and novelist whose work explores themes of identity, faith, addiction, and belonging—elements that deeply inform the spiritual and introspective narrative of this literary fiction debut.
He is the author of two celebrated poetry collections, Calling a Wolf a Wolf (2017) and Pilgrim Bell (2021), which was named a best book of the year by Time, The Guardian, and NPR. Akbar serves as Poetry Editor of The Nation, a position previously held by Langston Hughes and William Butler Yeats, and founded Divedapper, a poetry interview platform. He directs the University of Iowa's undergraduate creative writing program and his poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Poetry Magazine.
In 2024, Akbar received a Guggenheim Fellowship and Time magazine recognized him on its TIME100 Next List, solidifying his place as one of contemporary literature's most influential voices.