Asef Soltanzadeh

Mohammad Asef Soltanzadeh was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in the year 1964. He moved to Pakistan and then to Iran in the year 1985 and in the year 2002, he moved to Denmark. He is a writer that specializes in drama ad prose. Mainly he writes in Persian language.

source of picture: www.unhcr.org

Discovered by the Iranian critic and writer called Hushang Golshiri, he has published his short stories in many literary journals. When his book called ‘We Disappear in Flight’ was published in the Tehran in the year 2000, he became popular among the professionals of literature in the Persian Language. In Iran, a second edition of his short stories is being published.

Two collections of his short stories; The Deserter and We Disappear won the significant Golshiri award in Iran in the year 2001.

In the year 2002, he moved to Denmark, when the people of Afghanistan were no more permitted to stay in Iran.

Works

Short stories

His most recent collections of stories, in Persian, are:

• We Disappear in Flight, Tehran: Agah, 2000.
• Newyear's Day Is Delightful Only in Kabul
• Now Denmark
• The Deserter
• You Who Are Here, This Is Not Your Land

Novels

• Eden's Hell
• Book of Exodus, Copenhagen: Dyiar-e Ketab, 2011.
• The Cinematographer of Noqrah, Copenhagen: Bita Book, Dec. 2011.
• Alas, Mullah Omar, Copenhagen: Bita Book, 2013.

Anthologized in

• Another Sea, Another Shore: Persian Stories of Migration. Ed. and trans. Shouleh Vatanabadi and Mohammad Mehdi Khorrami. Northampton, MA: Interlink Books, 2004.
• "Sohrab's Wars: Counter Discourses of Contemporary Persian Fiction". Ed. and trans. Mohammad Mehdi Khorrami and Pari Shirazi. Costa Mesa, California, Mazda Publishers, Inc., 2008.
• "Herfra min verden går. 23 flersprogede forfattere i Danmark". Copenhagen, Dansk PEN, 2009.
• "Writing from Afghanistan". Ed. and trans. Anders Widmark. at the website.

Awards

• Golshiri Award, 2001 (Golshiri Foundation, Iran)
• Danish Refugee Council Artist Award, 2003.
• Golshiri Award, 2007 (Golshiri Foundation, Iran) - for The Deserter, Award for the Best Collection of Short Stories.
• Nawrooz Award, 2010 (Kabul, Afghanistan) - for The Deserter, Award for the Best Collection of Afghan Short Stories of the Decade.