Lila Azam Zanganeh

{{Infobox writer

| name = Lila Azam Zanganeh

| image = Lila Azam Zanganeh Near The Met in NYC - June 2013.jpg

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| caption = Photo by Marcelo Correa

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| birth_date = 1976[https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=simpleSearch&cqlMode=true&query=nid%3D1076934188 DNB, Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek][https://isni.oclc.org/cbs/DB=1.2/CMD?ACT=SRCH&IKT=8006&TRM=ISN%3A0000000358865325&TERMS_OF_USE_AGREED=Y&terms_of_use_agree=send ISNI Search Database]

| birth_place = Paris, France

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| occupation = Writer

| nationality = French-Iranian

| alma_mater = École Normale Supérieure, Harvard University

| period = 2002–present

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| website = {{URL|lazanganeh.com/}}

}}Lila Azam Zanganeh is a writer born and raised in Paris, France, by exiled Iranian parents. She lives and works in New York City.{{cite web|last=Heyman |first=Stephen |url=https://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/lila-azam-zanganeh/ |title=Reading 'Lolita.' Forgetting Tehran |work=The New York Times |date=May 24, 2011 |access-date=June 6, 2011}} She is the author of The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness (Penguin Books, 2011).[http://books.wwnorton.com/books/The-Enchanter/ "The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness". Lila Azam Zanganeh (Author)], W.W. Norton. She was a member of the jury for the 2017 Man Booker Prize for fiction.{{cite web | title=Colin Thubron and Tom Phillips join Lola Young on 2017 Man Booker jury | website=the Guardian | date=2016-12-20 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/20/colin-thubron-and-tom-phillips-join-2017-man-booker-jury | access-date=2017-02-16}}{{cite journal |last= Moseley |first= Merrit |title= On the 2017 Man Booker Prize |date= 2018 |url= |journal= Sewanee Review |volume= 126 |issue= 1 |pages= 146–160 |doi= 10.1353/sew.2018.0017 |s2cid= 165745533 |access-date=}} In 2021, she published a long-form essay in Lolita in the Afterlife (Vintage Books, 2021). Her forthcoming novel, Exit Paradise, will be published in 2025.

Life and work

Azam Zanganeh was born to Iranian exile parents, and the family escaped to Paris when Zanganeh was two years old, following the revolution of 1979.{{cite news|url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/may/26/lila-azam-zanganeh-nabokov-interview | title= Interview Lila Azam Zanganeh: 'I've always wanted to push myself to do things I don't know how to do' | work = The Guardian | date= May 26, 2011 | last1= Skidelsky | first1= William }} After studying literature and philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure,[http://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1997/08/05/ecole-normale-superieure-de-fontenay-saint-cloud_3789840_1819218.html?xtmc=lila_zanganeh&xtcr=23 Ecole normale supérieure de Fontenay- Saint-Cloud]. she moved to the United States to become a teaching fellow in literature, cinema, and Romance languages at Harvard University. In 2002, she began contributing literary articles, interviews, and essays to a host of American and European publications, among which The New York Times, The Paris Review, Le Monde, and la Repubblica.[http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5856/the-art-of-fiction-no-197-pauleacute-baacutertoacuten "Umberto Eco, The Art of Fiction No. 197"], The Paris Review, Summer 2008, No. 185.[http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5740/the-art-of-fiction-no-192-jorge-semprn "Jorge Semprún, The Art of Fiction No. 192"], The Paris Review, Spring 2007, No. 180.

She also holds a master's degree in International Affairs from Columbia University.{{cite web|url= https://literaturfestival.com/en/authors/lila-azam-zanganeh/ |title= LILA AZAM ZANGANEH |publisher= International Literature Festival Berlin|access-date= 2023-06-27}}

Her first book, The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness, has been published by W. W. Norton & Company in the United States, Penguin Books in the United Kingdom, Éditions de l'Olivier in France, Contact in Holland, L'Ancora del Mediterraneo in Italy, Duomo Ediciones in Spain, Azbooka in Russia, Büchergilde Gutenberg in Germany, Everest in Turkey, Shang Shu in China, Al-Kamel in Lebanon, Mehri Publications in Iran, and Alfaguara Objetiva in Brazil, where it reached No. 10 on the national Brazilian bestseller list.

She is fluent in seven languages (English, French, Persian, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Portuguese). She writes and lives in New York City.{{cite web|url= https://www.speakersacademy.com/en/speaker/lila-azam-zanganeh/ | title= Author of The Enchanter Lila Azam Zanganeh | publisher = Speakers Academy }} Her new novel, Exit Paradise, is forthcoming in 2025.

Social initiatives

Azam Zanganeh served on the Board of Overseers of the International Rescue Committee{{cite web | title=IRC Board of Directors and Overseers | website=International Rescue Committee (IRC) | date=2016-06-14 | url=https://www.rescue.org/board-and-overseers | access-date=2017-02-16}} for 12 years.
Azam Zanganeh was a member of the advisory board of The Lunchbox Fund, a non-profit organization that delivers a daily meal to pupils in township schools in Soweto, South Africa, until the end of 2011.{{cite web|url= https://thepunchmagazine.com/the-byword/interviews/a-novel-summarises-consciousness-man-booker-prize-juror-lila-azam-zanganeh | title= A novel summarises consciousness: Man Booker Prize juror Lila Azam Zanganeh | publisher = the punch magazine }}
She is a global ambassador for Libraries Without Borders as well as a board member of Narrative4,{{cite web | title=June 20, 2016 | website=Narrative4 | date=2016-09-19 | url=http://www.narrative4.com/2016/09/june-20-2016/ | access-date=2017-02-16}} an international story-exchange organization that promotes radical empathy.

Works and Publications

Source:{{cite web|url= https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/63740.Lila_Azam_Zanganeh | title= Books by Lila Azam Zanganeh | publisher = goodreads }}

{{Cite book |title= The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness |last= Zanganeh |first= Lila Azam |authorlink= Lila Azam Zanganeh |year= 2011 |publisher= |isbn= 978-0-393-07992-0 |pages= 256 |url= }} (Portuguese Brazilian Edition)
My Sister, Guard Your Veil, My Brother, Guard Your Eyes: Uncensored Iranian Voices (2006) (edited by Lila Azam Zanganeh). {{ISBN|978-0-8070-0463-0}}
Modern Classics Paris by Julien Green, Lila Azam Zanganeh (co-author) {{ISBN|978-0141194653}}
Where You Are: A Collection of Maps That Will Leave You Feeling Completely Lost Lila Azam Zanganeh (contributing author) {{ISBN|978-0956569240}}
L'estate la sentivo arrivare dal viale, Lila Azam Zanganeh (interviewer)

Awards and recognition

The Enchanter is the recipient of the Roger Shattuck Prize for Criticism, awarded each year by the Center for Fiction, 2011.{{cite web|url= https://pen.org/user/lila-azam-zanganeh/ | title= LILA AZAM ZANGANEH | date= August 9, 2012 | publisher = PEN AMERICA }}
Recognized by The Man Booker Prize which named her as a judge for the 2017 PEN/NABOKOV AWARD FOR ACHIEVEMENT IN INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE section. She served on a panel of five judges, chaired by Baroness Lola Young.{{cite web|url= https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/judges/lila-azam-zanganeh | title= Lila Azam Zanganeh 2017 Booker Prize Judge | publisher = The Booker Prizes }}

References

External links

[http://www.radioopensource.org/ecstasy-on-3-x-5-cards-lila-azam-zanganehs-nabokov/ "Ecstasy on 3 x 5 Cards: Lila Azam Zanganeh's Nabokov"], interview on Radio Open Source with Christopher Lydon, June 1, 2011.
[http://www.letteratura.rai.it/articoli/un-incantevole-sogno-di-felicità/14174/default.aspx Lila Azam Zanganeh on the portal RAI Letteratura]
[http://www.literaturfestival.com/archive/participants/authors/2013/lila-azam-zanganeh?set_language=en Lila Azam Zanganeh] at the Berlin International Literature Festival 2013
[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2560119/ Lila Azam Zanganeh]. IMDb
[https://roundtable.org/educator/lila-azam-zanganeh Brief biography of Lila Zanganeh]