Lila Azam Zanganeh is a writer raised in Paris, France, by exiled Iranian parents. She lives and works in New York City.[1] She is the author of The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness (Penguin Books, 2011).[2] She was a member of the jury for the 2017 Man Booker Prize for fiction.[3] She has just published a long-form essay in Lolita in the Afterlife (Vintage Books, 2021). Her new novel, Of Lovers and Other Madmen, is forthcoming in 2022.
Lila Azam Zanganeh | |
---|---|
Born | Paris, France |
Occupation | Writer |
Nationality | French-Iranian |
Alma mater | École Normale Supérieure, Harvard University |
Period | 2002–present |
Website | |
lazanganeh |
Life and work
Azam Zanganeh was born in Paris to Iranian parents. After studying literature and philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure,[4] she moved to the United States to become a teaching fellow in literature, cinema, and Romance languages at Harvard University. In 2002, she began contributing literary articles, interviews, and essays to a host of American and European publications, among which The New York Times, The Paris Review, Le Monde, and la Repubblica.[5][6]
Her first book, The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness, has been published by W. W. Norton & Company in the United States, Penguin Books in the United Kingdom, Éditions de l'Olivier in France, Contact in Holland, L'Ancora del Mediterraneo in Italy, Duomo Ediciones in Spain, Azbooka in Russia, Büchergilde Gutenberg in Germany, Everest in Turkey, Shang Shu in China, Al-Kamel in Lebanon, Mehri Publications in Iran, and Alfaguara Objetiva in Brazil, where it reached No. 10 on the national Brazilian bestseller list.
She is fluent in seven languages (English, French, Persian, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Portuguese) and is the recipient of the 2011 Roger Shattuck Prize for Criticism, awarded each year by the Center for Fiction. She writes and lives in New York City. Her new novel, Of Lovers and Other Madmen, is forthcoming in 2022.
Social initiatives
Azam Zanganeh served on the Board of Overseers of the International Rescue Committee[7] for 12 years. She is a global ambassador for Libraries Without Borders as well as a board member of Narrative4,[8] an international story-exchange organization that promotes radical empathy.
Publications
References
- ^ Heyman, Stephen (May 24, 2011). "Reading 'Lolita.' Forgetting Tehran". nytimes.com. Retrieved June 6, 2011.
- ^ "The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness". Lila Azam Zanganeh (Author), W.W. Norton.
- ^ "Colin Thubron and Tom Phillips join Lola Young on 2017 Man Booker jury". the Guardian. December 20, 2016. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
- ^ Ecole normale supérieure de Fontenay- Saint-Cloud.
- ^ "Umberto Eco, The Art of Fiction No. 197", The Paris Review, Summer 2008, No. 185.
- ^ "Jorge Semprún, The Art of Fiction No. 192", The Paris Review, Spring 2007, No. 180.
- ^ "IRC Board of Directors and Overseers". International Rescue Committee (IRC). June 14, 2016. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
- ^ "June 20, 2016". Narrative4. September 19, 2016. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
External links
- "Ecstasy on 3 x 5 Cards: Lila Azam Zanganeh's Nabokov", interview on Radio Open Source with Christopher Lydon, June 1, 2011.
- Lila Azam Zanganeh on the portal RAI Letteratura
- Lila Azam Zanganeh at the Berlin International Literature Festival 2013