Iranian author Dowlatabadi invited to intl. literature festival

TEHRAN,April 28(MNA) -- Veteran Iranian author Mahmud Dowlatabadi is seen among the 100 writers from 25 countries invited to the World Voices Festival of International Literature opening in New York City on April 30. Dowlatabadi hopes to be able to present a peaceful image of Iran and Iranians to the world. Marking PEN American Center’s 90th anniversary, this year’s festival features performances, discussions, conversations and readings, which will run until May 6, 2012. The U.S. Melville House, the publisher of Dowlatabadi’s stunning novel “The Colonel” has also arranged several programs for Dowlatabadi, during which “The Colonel” will be introduced and reviewed. The book narrates the life of an Iranian family during the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The German version of “The Colonel” was also published in Switzerland in 2009. Margaret Atwood (Canada), Steve Bell (U.K.), Michael Cunningham (U.S.), Aleksandar Hemon (Bosnia), Karl O. Knausgaard (Norway) and Ludmila Ulitskaya (Russia) are among the participants invited to the festival. Born in 1940, short-story writer and novelist Dowlatabadi was the most prominent Iranian novelist of the 1980s. Self-educated and forced to work from childhood, he spent part of his younger adult years as a stage actor in Tehran. “Kalidar”, “Desert Strata”, “The Trip”, “The Legend of Baba Sobhan”, “The Cowherd”, “Aqil”, “Man” and “Missing Soluch” are among Dowlatabadi’s credits.