Roya Hakakian

Roya Hakakian (Persian: رویا حکاکیان) is an Iranian American Jewish writer, journalist, and political commentator. Born in Iran, she came to the United States as a refugee and is now a naturalized citizen. She is the author of several books, including an acclaimed memoir in English called Journey from the Land of No (Crown), Assassins of the Turquoise Palace (Grove/Atlantic), and A Beginner's Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious (Knopf). Influenced by both the literary traditions of her birth country and its historical turmoils, Roya Hakakian often draws her inspirations from political subjects and treats them with lyricism. She takes on the difficult contemporary sociopolitical issues —exile, persecution, censorship— and injects them with relevance and urgency through her observant and poetic sensibility to make these subjects accessible to all readers.