A fiction-fellow from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, by the name of Laleh Khadivi is one of 10 writers to receive the 2008 Whiting Foundation's Writing Awards. At 31, the Iranian-born author, who spent her high-school years in Atlanta, has not yet published her first book. Her first novel, The Age of Orphans, which tells the story of a Kurdish boy compelled to betray his people in order to serve the new Iranian nation, is due out in March of 2009. This book is to be part of a trilogy that Khadivi intends to complete.
"It (the trilogy) follows three generations of Kurds as they become
increasingly stateless," Khadivi says, "The three main characters are based loosely on my grandfather, my father, and my brother."
To find out more about the Whiting award, and to view a list
of the other 9 writers who are recipients of this $50,000 prize, go here:
2008 Whiting Writers' Award Recipients | Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation
~Titania
"It (the trilogy) follows three generations of Kurds as they become
increasingly stateless," Khadivi says, "The three main characters are based loosely on my grandfather, my father, and my brother."
To find out more about the Whiting award, and to view a list
of the other 9 writers who are recipients of this $50,000 prize, go here:
2008 Whiting Writers' Award Recipients | Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation
~Titania