Shahriyar Mandanipour

Shahriar Mandanipour is an award-winning Iranian novelist in modern Persian literature and is now a well-known International Writer. He won the Mehregan Award for the best Iranian children's novel of 2004; the Golden Tablet Award for best fiction of the past 20 years in Iran, 1998; and Best Film Critique at the Press Festival in Tehran (1994).

Shahriar is chief editor of "Asr-e Pandjshanbeh (Thursday Evening)", a monthly literary journal published since 1999 in Shiraz. He is also director of the Hafiz Research Center in Shiraz and was previously director of the National Library of Fars and director of the Bureau of Fars Province Public Libraries in Shiraz. He holds a BA in political science from Tehran University.

Mandanipour is the author of nine volumes of fiction, one nonfiction book, and more than 100 essays in genre such as literary theory, literature and art criticism, creative writing, censorship, and social commentary. His five collections of short stories include "The Eighth Day of the Earth", "Violent Orient", "Midday Moon"," Mummy and Honey", and "Shadows of the Cave". A recent work, "Ultramarine Blue", gathers together 11 stories that relate in various ways to the events of 9/11. He is the author of the two-volume novel, "The Courage of Love". Shahriar is also the author of The Book of "Shahrzad's Ghosts" , a book of essays on creative writing.