Shadows of the Cave

Shahriar Mandanipour is the author of nine volumes of fiction, one nonfiction book, and more than a hundred essays on literary theory, literature and art criticism, creative writing, censorship, and social commentary. From 1999 to 2007, he was editor-in-chief of Asr-e Panjshanbeh (Thursday Evening), a monthly literary journal that was banned after nine years of publication. His first novel to appear in English, Censoring an Iranian Love Story (Knopf, 2009; translated by Sara Khalili), was named one of the reviewers’ favorites by The New Yorker, Best Book of the Year by the Cornell Daily Sun , and one of the best debut novels of the year by NPR; the Greek edition was awarded the Athens Prize for Literature. Mandanipour’s short stories and essays have been published in anthologies such as Strange Times, My Dear: The PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature and Sohrab’s Wars: Counter Discourses of Contemporary Persian Fiction and in journals such as Kenyon Review, AGNI, The Literary Review, and Virginia Quarterly Review. His honors include the Mehregan Award for the best Iranian children’s novel of 2004 and the 1998 Golden Tablet Award for best fiction in Iran during the previous two decades. (updated 4/2018)

Sara Khalili is an editor and translator of contemporary Iranian literature. Her translations include Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour, The Pomegranate Lady and Her Sons by Goli Taraghi, The Book of Fate by Parinoush Saniee, Kissing the Sword by Shahrnush Parsipur, and Rituals of Restlessness by Yaghoub Yadali. Her short story translations have appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Epoch, AGNI, Granta, Words Without Borders, and elsewhere. Her latest translation, the novel Moon Brow by Mandanipour, is new from Restless Books this spring. (updated 4/2018)