Afarin Majidi

ZIBA, Longlisted for The Grindstone Literary Novel Prize

Afarin Majidi is an Iranian-American writer. She holds a BA in English Literature from Barnard College and an MFA in Fiction Writing from New School University. Writing and Madness in a Time of Terror (2017) is her debut memoir. Her novel Ziba (2024) is set in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.

Ziba

Set in Iran circa 1978-1979, Ziba is an impressionistic brushstroke, depicting Iran as it spirals into revolution while the Azadi family is divided by opposing allegiances.

Ziba is tearing her marriage apart due to a cheating heart and because she feels alienated in the royal court. Her daughter from a first marriage, Nasreen, is a socialist, a punk-rock poet, who has grown rebellious, even truant, after being cast out of Ziba's new family.

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 afarinmajidi@gmail.com

Writing and Madness in a Time of Terror: a memoir

Earning an MFA in writing at the New School, working at Rolling Stone magazine, and being courted by an editor at a prestigious publishing house—Afarin Majidi should be thrilled with the direction her life is taking as she turns thirty. Instead, she is spiraling into the depths of madness as she seeks love and acceptance in an Islamophobic society.

Raw and honest, Writing and Madness in a Time of Terror is a haunting meditation on identity, misogyny, violence, and mental illness.

Majidi earned her BA from Barnard College and an MFA from New School University. She is the niece of Abdol-Madgid Madgidi, a prominent cabinet member during the Shah of Iran’s reign. Writing and Madness in a Time of Terror begins with her family’s narrow escape from execution during the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.