Writing to Make Sense of the World: An Afternoon with Kaveh Akbar

Kaveh Akbar has said that writing is how he makes sense of the world, and the title of this Hermitage Artist Retreat talk with the Hermitage Fellow echoes that line. Akbar was born in Tehran and came to the United States at age two. He made his name as a poet with Calling a Wolf a Wolf, which deals with addiction and recovery, and with Pilgrim Bell. He then turned to fiction with Martyr!, a New York Times bestseller that the paper named one of its ten best books of 2024. He has been poetry editor of The Nation since 2020 and holds a named professorship in English at the University of Iowa. His doctorate in creative writing is from Florida State.