Experts
Porochista Khakpour
Author
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Porochista Khakpour reads from "Sons and other Flammable Objects."
Almost exactly eight months after his father left him in New York, Xerxes Adam was awakened to the hottest summer day of the year by the invasion of a rather unwelcome mental slide show - visions of that distant prime creator, his mother. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Arts & Culture
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Why does Brooklyn inspire so many young writers?
For one thing, it's cheap. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Inspiration & Wisdom
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What advice do you have for young writers?
Ditch the script. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Inspiration & Wisdom
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Khakpour is working on a novel and a collection of short stories. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Arts & Culture
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What is the most overrated book?
Khakpour takes a whole genre to task. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Arts & Culture
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What's in your personal literary canon?
"Wuthering Heights" to start. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Arts & Culture
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Khakpour loves the 19th-century novel and the absurdist 20th-century novel equally. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Arts & Culture
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How do you get through writer's block?
Khakpour has a convenient Internet addiction. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Arts & Culture
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Khakpour churns it out fast, and edits it later. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Arts & Culture
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What role does comedy play in your book?
A sense of humor was always Khakpour's best defense. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Arts & Culture
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The Challenges of Being a Bright Young Thing
"Wow! This girl can write!," can cut both ways, Khakpour says. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In History
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Why do you only hint at your characters' histories?
Khakpour wanted to play with the fragmented nature of memory. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Arts & Culture
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Why is crisis so central to your novel?
Khakpour says she's never known a time outside of crisis. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Arts & Culture
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What role does food play in your book?
Xerxes serves Fruity Pebbles to his visiting father, who is deeply offended by the offering. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Arts & Culture
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Porochista Khakpour On Persian Curses
Don't cut your fingernails at night. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Belief
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What is the male reality in your novel?
Crisis, says Khakpour. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Arts & Culture
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9/11 was a major kick in the ass, Khakpour says. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Inspiration & Wisdom
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Are you part of the Iranian community in the U.S.?
Since her novel came out, Khakpour has been getting lots of fan mail from Iranian bloggers. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Identity
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Is the image of the victimized Middle Eastern woman accurate?
Iranian women, Khakpour says, are the real force in the household. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Politics & Policy
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Has your family faced any discrimination after 9/11?
Khakpour remembers a rattling Amtrak encounter. Read More
February 19, 2008 | In Identity
Porochista Khakpour was born in Tehran in 1978 and raised in the Greater Los Angeles area (South Pasadena, to be exact). Her first language was Farsi, her second (and luckily mostly forgotten) tongue, Valley Girl. She attended Sarah Lawrence College and The Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars MA program. She has been awarded fellowships from Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Yaddo.She began writing as an arts and entertainment journalist—her subjects have spanned from clubs (Paul Oakenfold!) to couture (Paul Poiret!); Maggie Gyllenhaal (Maggie’s first big feature!) to Fabio (Porochista’s first feature at 16!); New York City’s finest drinking establishments (Paper magazine bar columnist, 2000-2001, as well as New York magazine online bar critic) to rural Illinois’s most dangerous skydiving compound (2004 staff writer stint at The Chicago Reader). Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Village Voice, The Chicago Reader, Paper, Flaunt, Nylon, Bidoun, Alef, Canteen, nerve.com and FiveChapters.com, among others.She currently spends a third of her time in New York City and two thirds three hours away in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania where she teaches Fiction at Bucknell University.
