Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi

Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi (born 1983 in Los Angeles) is an Iranian American writer. She won the 2015 Whiting Award for Fiction and the 2019 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Early life and education Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi was born in 1983, in Los Angeles, to an Iranian mother and British father. She spent much of her childhood in Iran and Spain but also lived in the United States, Scotland, and the United Arab Emirates. She speaks four languages. and won the Whiting Award for Fiction.

Her second book, the unconventional bildungsroman Call Me Zebra, won the 2019 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

In addition to writing, Van der Vliet Oloomi is an associate professor of English at the University of Notre Dame.

Over twenty publications named Call Me Zebra one of the best books of 2019.

John Gardner Fiction Book Award —