Discipline: Literature – nonfiction

Roya Hakakian

Discipline: Literature – nonfiction
Region: Woodbridge, CT
MacDowell Fellowships: 2003, 2003
More: www.royahakakian.com
Roya Hakakian is an Iranian-American poet, journalist, and writer living in the United States. A lauded Persian poet-turned-television producer with programs like “60 Minutes,” Hakakian became well known for her memoir, Journey from the Land of No in 2004. Her essays on Iranian issues appear in The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and on NPR. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008, she published Assassins of the Turquoise Palace in 2011, a non-fiction account of the Mykonos restaurant assassinations of Iranian opposition leaders in Berlin. Hakakian was a founding member of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, and serves on the board of Refugees International. Harry Kreisler's Political Awakenings: Conversations with History highlighted Hakakian among "20 of the most important activists, academics, and journalists of our generation." Her memoir of growing up a Persian Jewish teenager in revolutionary Iran, Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran (Crown) was a Barnes & Noble’s Pick of the Week, Ms. magazine Must Read of the Summer, Publishers Weekly’s Best Book of the Year, Elle magazine's Best Nonfiction Book of 2004.

Studios

Schelling

Roya Hakakian worked in the Schelling studio.

Marian MacDowell funded construction of this studio the year that the organization was established and the first artists arrived for residency. It was called Bark Studio until 1933, when it was renamed in honor of Ernest Schelling, a composer, pianist, and orchestral leader who served as president of what was then called the Edward MacDowell…

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