ZIBA, Longlisted for The Grindstone Literary Novel Prize 2022
Afarin Majidi is an Iranian-American writer. She holds a BA in English Literature from Barnard College and an MFA in Fiction Writing from New School University. Writing and Madness in a Time of Terror is her debut memoir. Her novel Ziba is set in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.
Afarin Majidi has been cyberstalked since 2003, while a student in the MFA program at The New School.
Writing and Madness in a Time of Terror: a memoir
Earning an MFA in writing at the New School, working at Rolling Stone magazine, and being courted by an editor at a prestigious publishing house—Afarin Majidi should be thrilled with the direction her life is taking as she turns thirty. Instead, she is spiraling into the depths of madness as she seeks love and acceptance in an Islamophobic society.
After colleagues at the magazine drug and rape her, she’s left with an unfinished novel. She turns to a former professor, James Lasdun, with whom she develops a toxic obsession. Majidi is the woman he vilifies and calls “Nasreen” in his memoir, Give Me Everything You Have.
Raw and honest, Writing and Madness in a Time of Terror is a haunting meditation on identity, misogyny, violence, and mental illness.
Majidi earned her BA from Barnard College and an MFA from New School University. She is the niece of Abdol-Madgid Madgidi, a prominent cabinet member during the Shah of Iran’s reign. Writing and Madness in a Time of Terror begins with her family’s narrow escape from execution during the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.
