Shokoofeh Azar

Azar was born in Iran in 1972. Her father was an author and a poet, and she studied literature in university before becoming a writer and journalist.{{Cite web|title=The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree · The Stella Prize|url=https://thestellaprize.com.au/prize/2018-prize/enlightenment-greengage-tree/|access-date=2020-09-18|website=The Stella Prize|language=en-US}} She began her career as an editor and wrote as well for a literary encyclopedia in Iran.{{Cite web|last=Wood|first=Robert|title=Deep into the Heart: An Interview with Shokoofeh Azar|url=https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/interviews/deep-heart-interview-shokoofeh-azar/|access-date=2020-09-18|website=BLARB|language=en-US}} She later worked as an editor in a newspaper, before taking up writing as a journalist.

As a journalist, she covered issues relating to human rights, and particularly, women's rights.{{Cite web|last=Steger|first=Jason|date=2018-03-09|title=From a people smuggler's boat to the shortlist for the Stella Prize|url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/from-a-people-smugglers-boat-to-the-shortlist-for-the-stella-prize-20180308-h0x770.html|access-date=2020-09-18|website=The Sydney Morning Herald|language=en}} She was arrested thrice in connection with her work, which was often critical of the Iranian government, and had been placed in solitary confinement for a period of three months during one such arrest.{{Cite web|date=2020-04-10|title=Iranian-Australian author shortlisted for International Booker with magic realist novel|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-11/shokoofeh-azar-australian-writer-international-booker-prize/12133588|access-date=2020-09-18|website=www.abc.net.au|language=en-AU}}

On advice from her family, she fled Iran to Turkey, and from there to Indonesia, from where she traveled by boat, arriving at an Australian refugee detention center on Christmas Island in 2011. She was granted political asylum in Australia in 2011.{{Cite web|date=2020-09-11|title=Interview: 'I like to be reminded that literature has the power and mystery of a dragon,' says Australian-Iranian author Shokoofeh Azar|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/interview-i-like-to-be-reminded-that-literature-has-the-power-and-mystery-of-a-dragon-says-australian-iranian-author-shokoofeh-azar/story-bvmxoIWG9ohI3LwoAsluMI.html|access-date=2020-09-18|website=Hindustan Times|language=en}} She did not speak English upon her arrival in Australia, and learned the language as an adult. She currently lives in Geelong, Victoria. She graduated with a Bachelor of Communications with Honours via Deakin University’s Cloud Campus.

Azar's 2020 novel, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree is set in Iran, deploying magic realism to narrate the incidents surrounding the life of a family in Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The novel was originally written in Farsi, and was first published in English translation by the Wild Dingo Press in Australia in 2017. The translator has chosen to remain anonymous. It was nominated for the Stella Prize for Fiction in Australia in 2018. It was also on the shortlist for the International Booker Prize in 2020, and Azar is the first Iranian author to have been nominated for the prize.{{Cite web|title=The International Booker Prize 2020 {{!}} The Booker Prizes|url=https://thebookerprizes.com/international-booker/2020|access-date=2020-09-18|website=thebookerprizes.com}}{{Cite web|date=2020-03-01|title=Shokoofeh Azar is among the 13 writers, and Iran's first, to be on the Booker Prize International longlist|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/shokoofeh-azar-iran-writers-on-booker-prize-international-longlist-enlightenment-of-the-greengage-tree-6293119/|access-date=2020-09-18|website=The Indian Express|language=en}} The book was republished for audiences outside Australia by Europa Editions.{{cite web|url= https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/iranian-refugee-shokoofeh-azar-longlisted-for-booker-international-20200228-p545b3.html | title= Iranian refugee Shokoofeh Azar longlisted for Booker International | publisher = The Sydney Morning Herald }}

• Companion in Writing and Editing Essays{{Cite web|last=Garret|first=The|date=2018-11-21|title=Shokoofeh Azar|url=https://thegarretpodcast.com/shokoofeh-azar/|access-date=2020-09-18|website=The Garret|language=en-AU}}
• {{cite book |last= Azar |first= Shokoofeh |author-link= Shokoofeh Azar |date= 2020 |title= The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree |url= https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35708940-the-enlightenment-of-the-greengage-tree |location= |publisher= Europa Editions |pages= 272 |isbn= 978-1-609-45565-1}} {{Cite web|title=The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree|url=https://wilddingopress.com.au/product/the-enlightenment-of-the-greengage-tree/|access-date=2020-09-18|website=Wild Dingo Press|language=en-AU}}
• {{cite journal |last= Azar |first= Shokoofeh |date= 2022 |title= Why Iranians Continue to Seek Refuge in Australia |url=

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/832418 |journal= World Literature Today |volume= 94 |issue= 3 |pages= 38–43 |doi= 10.1353/wlt.2020.0264 |access-date= 2022-11-19|url-access= subscription }}

• The woman who went to stand there., Westerly; Jun2014, Vol. 59 Issue 1, p18-24, 7p {{ISSN|0043-342X}}
• That's what its name is: Forget-me-not. Westerly; Jun2013, Vol. 58 Issue 1, p232-236, 5p {{ISSN|0043-342X}}
• The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree
• {{Cite book |title= L'illuminazione del susino selvatico |last= Azar |first= Shokoofeh |authorlink= Shokoofeh Azar |year= 2020 |publisher= |isbn= |pages= 254 |url= https://www.amazon.com/Lilluminazione-del-susino-selvatico-Italian-ebook/dp/B08CHM93MX/ref=sr_1_4?qid=1680688190&refinements=p_27%3AShokoofeh+Azar&s=books&sr=1-4 |accessdate= 2023-04-05}}
• {{Cite book |title= Yaban Erigi Agacinda Gelen Aydinlanma |last= Azar |first= Shokoofeh |authorlink= Shokoofeh Azar |year= 2021 |publisher= |isbn= 978-6-057-42102-9 |pages= 300 }}

• (1997) Best Book Award (Iran): for Companion in Writing and Editing Essays (in Farsi)
• (2018) Stella Prize for Fiction: nominated for The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree{{cite web|url= https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A619334652/AONE?u=wikipedia&sid=ebsco&xid=a2f729bf |title= Booker shortlisting for refugee novelist. |publisher= News Limited }}
• The River Woman. Westerly; Jun2013, Vol. 58 Issue 1, p237-243, 7p {{ISSN|0043-342X}}
• (2020) International Booker Prize for Fiction: nominated for The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite magazine |last= Moaveni |first= Azadeh |date= 2020 |title= Children of the revolution: The tropes and horrors of 1979 fiction |url= |magazine= Times Literary Supplement |location= |publisher=|issn= 0307-661X |access-date=}}

• [https://www.deakin.edu.au/student-life-and-services/past-students-alumni/meet-our-alumni/shokoofeh-azar Shokoofeh Azar - Deakin University]
• [https://www.nationalbook.org/people/shokoofeh-azar/ Shokoofeh - National Book Foundation]
• [https://stella.org.au/writer/shokoofeh-azar/ Stella Prize]
• [https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/shokoofeh-azar Shokoofeh Azar], The Booker Prize
• [https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/author/shokoofeh-azar Shokoofeh Azar's Publications], World Literature Today

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Category:1972 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century Iranian women writers

Category:Iranian women novelists

Category:Australian women novelists

Category:21st-century Australian women writers

Category:21st-century Australian novelists