Shokoofeh Azar

Shokoofeh Azar (; born 1972) is an Iranian-Australian author and journalist. Her novel The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree was nominated for the Stella Prize and the International Booker Prize.

Early life and education Azar was born in Iran in 1972. Her father was an author and a poet. She studied literature in university before becoming a writer and journalist.

Sometime after her move to Australia in 2011, she graduated with a Bachelor of Communications with Honours via Deakin University. She later worked as an editor for a newspaper, before taking up writing as a journalist. She was arrested three times in connection with her work, which was often critical of the Iranian government, and had been placed in solitary confinement for a period of three months during one such arrest.

On advice from her family, she fled Iran to Turkey, and from there to Indonesia, from where she travelled by boat, arriving at an Australian refugee detention centre on Christmas Island in 2011. She did not speak English upon her arrival in Australia, and learned the language as an adult. The book was republished for audiences outside Australia by Europa Editions.

Publications

Companion in Writing and Editing Essays

That's what its name is: Forget-me-not. Westerly; Jun2013, Vol. 58 Issue 1, p232-236, 5p

Awards

(1997) Best Book Award (Iran): for Companion in Writing and Editing Essays (in Persian) The River Woman. Westerly; Jun2013, Vol. 58 Issue 1, p237-243, 7p (2020) International Booker Prize for Fiction: nominated for The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree