Kaveh Akbar is a poet, novelist and editor whose debut novel, Martyr!, is a New York Times Bestseller, National Book Award Finalist, and one of Barack Obama鈥檚 favorite books of the year. He is also the author of the poetry collections Calling a Wolf a Wolf and Pilgrim Bell, and is the founder of Divedapper and the poetry editor of The Nation. In 2024, he received a Guggenheim fellowship, and Time magazine placed him on the TIME100 Next List. He is currently the director of the undergraduate creative writing program at the University of Iowa.
The compelling voice of the narrator. The way the book combines humor and serious existential thinking. The fact that at one point Lisa Simpson talks to Cyrus鈥檚 dead mother.