Archives | Authors | Mahmoud Dowlatabadi

Mahmoud Dowlatabadi Iran    PWF 2015

Iran’s preeminent writer, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi was born in Dowlatabad — a small village of Northern Iran — in 1940.

The young boy discovered how to read at elementary school and then started to read all books in the surroundings. In this same time his father introduced him to the classic of Farsi literature.

At 17, he moved to Teheran to pursue theatre, while continuing working various jobs. He started writing novels, short-stories and plays in 1960. In 1975, the shas’s police jailed him for 4 years just because his books were popular among opponents.

His masterpiece Kelidar — 3000 pages written during 15 years — was finally published in 1984. This story of a nomadic Kurdish family spread his popularity all among Iran.

His most awarded novel — including Jan Michalski Prize for Literature — The Colonel was released directly in English as the subject is quite sensitive in the Islamic Republic: a colonel has to collect the body of his daughter, tortured and killed by the Islamic revolutionaries.

Other Dowlatabadi’s works in English includes: Missing Soluch and Thirst.

Mahmoud Dowlatabadi lives in Teheran.