Ayad Akhtar is a novelist and playwright. His work has been published and performed in more than two dozen languages. He is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Edith Wharton Citation of Merit for Fiction Writers, and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among other honors. Akhtar is the author of the novels Radiance, Homeland Elegies (winner of the American Book Award and named one of the 10 Best Books of 2020 by The New York Times), and American Dervish (a Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Year). He has also authored the plays McNeal, Junk, Disgraced, The Who & The What, and The Invisible Hand. Akhtar was named New York State Author in 2021.

Photo credit: Vincent Tullo