Kaveh Akbar

Kaveh Akbar is the author of the novel Martyr! (Knopf, 2024) and the poetry collections Pilgrim Bell (Graywolf, 2021), Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James, 2017), and the chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic (Sibling Rivalry, 2016). He is also the editor of The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 100 Poets on the Divine (Penguin Classics, 2022).

In 2020 Akbar was named Poetry Editor of The Nation. His honors include multiple Pushcart Prizes, a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, and the Levis Reading Prize. Born in Tehran, Iran, he teaches at the University of Iowa and in the low-residency MFA programs at Randolph College and Warren Wilson. In 2014 he founded Divedapper, a home for dialogues with the most vital voices in American poetry. With Sarah Kay and Claire Schwartz, he wrote a weekly column for the Paris Review called "Poetry RX."