Please join us at Arion Press for a compelling conversation with Azar Nafisi on the power of literature to defy censorship as the second Kirkpatrick Speaker of 2024.
Bestselling author Azar Nafisi will appear in conversation with novelist Ingrid Rojas Contreras to discuss the recent wave of book bannings in America and how reading acts as a form of resistance. The talk will draw inspiration from Dr. Nafisi's most recent book Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times which explores the power of the written word in a turbulent era.
Doors open at 6 p.m., with drinks and light bites to follow.
The Kirkpatrick Speaker Series is made possible by the generous support of Taylor Kirkpatrick.
•••
Azar Nafisi is a critically acclaimed Iranian-American author and lifelong champion of literature's democratic power. Her memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran spent over 117 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, was translated into 32 languages, and has won many prestigious literary awards. After earning her Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma, she held fellowships at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and Oxford University, and taught at the University of Tehran. Her most recent book Read Dangerously offers a subversive guide to literature in turbulent times. She is a sought-after expert on Iran and human rights.
Ingrid Rojas Contreras was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Her memoir, The Man Who Could Move Clouds, was a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and won a California Book Award. Her first novel Fruit of the Drunken Tree was the silver medal winner in First Fiction from the California Book Awards and a New York Times editor's choice. Her essays and short stories have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Cut, Zyzzyva, and elsewhere. Rojas Contreras has received numerous awards and fellowships, and is a Visiting Writer at Saint Mary’s College.
Cover art from Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times by Azar Nafisi.
