Literary Legends and The University of Iowa Lecture Committee presents:

Literary Legends: Kaveh Akbar

Date: Friday, Sep. 19, 2025
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Location: Concert Hall, Voxman Music Building
Tickets: Free and open to the public.

University of Iowa Center for Advancement Literary Legend Kaveh Akbar is an acclaimed poet and author of Martyr!, a National Book Award finalist for fiction. He is also an Iowa City community member as well as associate professor and director of the Undergraduate English and Creative Writing major at the University of Iowa. He will read from his work and reflect upon the transformative power of language, the tensions between optimism and reckoning, and the role of art in envisioning a more just and imaginative future. 

Daniel Khalastchi, who will moderate the event, has recently been named the executive director of the University of Iowa’s Office of Writing and Communication. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a celebrated poet. He has been on staff at the university since 2011 and helped establish the UI’s Magid Center for Writing.

“So stunning, so wrenching, and so beautifully written that reading it for the first time, I kept forgetting to breathe. I will carry this story, and the people in it, with me for the rest of my life.” – John Green on Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr!

Event Registration: https://donate.givetoiowa.org/s/1773/alumni20/home.aspx?sid=1773&gid=2&pgid=2636&cid=6563&appealcode=GF000WGFAC&sourceEV2614=Hancher

Sponsors: University of Iowa Center for Advancement, University of Iowa Vice President for Research Creative Matter Series, Iowa Writers' Workshop, and the Nonfiction Writing Program