Porochista Khakpour was born in Tehran and raised in Los Angeles and lives in New York City. Khakpour is the author of the novels The Last Illusion and Sons and Other Flammable Objects—the 2007 California Book Award winner in “First Fiction,” and a New York Times “Editor’s Choice.” Her writing has appeared in or is forthcoming in Harper’s, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Salon and many other publications. She is currently Writer in Residence at Bard College and Visiting Writer at Wesleyan University.