Jump to content

Roya Hakakian

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 99.190.85.215 (talk) at 05:56, 14 October 2011 (non-fiction ... Mykonos restaurant assassinations on September 17, 1992 in Berlin. In this attack, activists were killed following a pattern of assassinations of opposition leaders Chain murders of Iran ... Theocracy Ian Buruma). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Roya Hakakian
Roya Hakakian
Roya Hakakian
BornTemplate:Lang-fa
ca. 1966
Iran
OccupationPoet, Journalist, Writer
LanguagePersian, English
CitizenshipAmerican
Alma materBrooklyn College, Hunter College
GenrePoetry, Non-fiction
Notable worksJourney from the Land of No,

Assassins of the Turquoise Palace, Template:Lang-fa (For the Sake of Water),

Template:Lang-fa (A Name to Worship)
Notable awards2004 Best Book of the Year (Publishers Weekly), 2004 Best Non-fiction Book of the Year (Elle), 2006 Latifeh Yarshater Book Award (Persian Heritage Foundation), 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship in Non-fiction
Website
http://www.royahakakian.com

Roya Hakakian (Template:Lang-fa) (born 1966 in Iran) is an Iranian-American poet, journalist and writer living in the United States. A lauded Persian poet turned television producer with programs like 60 Minutes, Roya became well known for her memoir, Journey from the Land of No in 2004. Her essays on Iranian issues appear in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and on NPR. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008,[1] Roya published Assassins of the Turquoise Palace in 2011, a non-fiction account of the Mykonos restaurant assassinations of Iranian opposition leaders in Berlin.

Roya was a founding member of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center,[2] and serves on the board of Refugees International.[3] Harry Kreisler's Political Awakenings: Conversations with History highlighted Roya among '20 of the most important activists, academics, and journalists of our generation.'[4]

Early life

Born and raised in a Persian Jewish family in Tehran, Roya lived through the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and actively supported it along with other liberals. As the Iran-Iraq war raged and restrictive laws became more common, she emigrated unwillingly to the United States in May 1985 on political asylum. Settling in the New York area, she studied psychology at Brooklyn College[5] and went on to earn a Master of Social Work at Hunter College.

Works

Non-fiction Books

Her memoir of growing up a Persian Jewish teenager in revolutionary Iran, Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran (Crown) was a Barnes & Noble’s Pick of the Week, Ms. magazine Must Read of the Summer, Publishers Weekly’s Best Book of the Year, and Elle Magazine’s Best Nonfiction Book of 2004.[6] It also won the Persian Heritage Foundation’s 2006 Latifeh Yarshater Book Award and is the 2005 winner of the Best Memoir by the Connecticut Center for the Book. Journey from the Land of No has been translated into several languages and is available in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain. She is also a recipient of the 2008 Guggenheim fellowship in nonfiction.

Roya's latest book, Assassins of the Turquoise Palace – released on September 6, 2011 through Grove/Atlantic – is a non-fiction account of the Mykonos restaurant assassinations on September 17, 1992 in Berlin. In this attack, four Kurdish and Iranian activists were killed following a pattern of assassinations of opposition leaders (see: Chain murders of Iran). Hakakian's book explores the assassinations and the implications of Iran, their fallout, and the subsequent court case known as the Mykonos trial that became one of the most high profile cases in Europe that ended implicating the highest level of Iranian government. It was a New York Times Book Review editors choice.

Poetry

Roya is the author of two collections of poetry in Persian, the first of which, For the Sake of Water, was nominated as poetry book of the year by Iran News in 1993. She was listed among the leading new voices in Persian poetry in the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World. Her poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies around the world, including La Regle Du Jeu, Strange Times My Dear: The Pen Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature,[7] and the forthcoming W.W. Norton’s Contemporary Voices of the Eastern World: An Anthology of Poems. She contributes to the Persian Literary Review, and served as the poetry editor of Par Magazine for six years.[8]

Film & Television

Roya Hakakian has collaborated on over a dozen hours of programming for leading journalism units on network television, including 60 Minutes and on A&E’s Travels With Harry, and ABC Documentary Specials with Peter Jennings, Discovery and The Learning Channel. Commissioned by UNICEF, Roya’s most recent film, Armed and Innocent,[9] on the subject of the involvement of underage children in wars around the world was a nominee for best short documentary at several festivals around the world.

Essays

Her opinion columns, essays, and book reviews appear in English language publications, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal among them. She is also a contributor to the Weekend Edition of NPR’s All Things Considered.

Bibliography

  • Journey from the Land of No: A girlhood caught in revolutionary Iran
  • Assassins of the Turquoise Palace

Interviews and Speeches

  • Yale University’s Saybrook College Master’s Tea on October 22, 2009
  • Salisbury College’s Fall Convocation Address and Book Signing on August 28, 2009
  • A Jewish Teen in Post-Revolutionary Iran on NPR’s Fresh Air on July 9, 2009
  • CBS with Bob Schieffer on Washington Unplugged on July 6, 2009
  • An Iranian-American Perspective on NPR’s Fresh Air on July 2, 2009
  • ABC Nightline Interview with Terry Moran on July 1, 2009
  • WNYC Leonard Lopate Show on July 1, 2009
  • The Iranian Regime is Coming Undone on wowOwow with Lesley Stahl on June 26, 2009
  • Young, Jewish and Iranian: Witness to a Revolution at University of TN on April 15, 2009
  • Conversations with History on UC Berkeley’s Global News and Opinion
  • Aftermath: Journalism, Storytelling and the Impact of Violence and Tragedy with Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation on February 27 and 29, 2009

See also

References

  1. ^ "Roya Hakakian 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship page". www.gf.org. Retrieved 2011-08-02.
  2. ^ "New York Times article on the founding of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center". www.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2011=08=01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  3. ^ "Board of Directors for Refugees International". www.refugeesinternational.org. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
  4. ^ "Political Awakenings: Conversations with History by Harry Kreisler". www.WorldCat.org. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
  5. ^ "Invitation to see alum Roya Hakakian speak to CUNY students". lacuny.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2011-08-02.
  6. ^ "Mention of Elle Award in Farsi". Retrieved 2011-08-03.
  7. ^ "Multicultural and World Literature Anthologies, comp. Alok Yadav". mason.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2011-08-02.
  8. ^ "List of editors for Par Magazine". www.iranian.com. Retrieved 2011-08-02.
  9. ^ "Documentaries Armed & Innocent". www.un.org. Retrieved 2011-08-03.

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Roya_Hakakian&oldid=455489754"