Ayad Akhtar

Ayad Akhtar is an acclaimed American playwright, screenwriter and novelist. He burst onto the literary scene in 2013 with his Pulitzer Prize winning play Disgraced and has since become one of the most sought after authors and playwrights in America. His body of work includes a plethora of plays, such as The Invisible Hand, Junk, and The Who & The What, and two novels, American Dervish and Homeland Elegies.

Akhtar was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is of Pakistani descent. Growing up, he had an affinity for performing arts, attending acting classes and taking part in theater productions. Akhtar attended Brown University and majored in acting before transferring to the Columbia University School of Arts. While studying at the Columbia University School of Arts, Akhtar discovered his true passion—writing. He wrote his first play, a comedy called These Girls, which received a workshop production Off-Broadway in 2002.

Since then, Akhtar has written nine additional plays, most notably Disgraced, which received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2013. In Disgraced, Akhtar dives into the thorny topics of race, identity, and culture in modern-day America. Through the story of Amir Kapoor, a successful Pakistani-American businessman and his dinner parties with friends, Akhtar delves into themes such as the American Dream, assimilation, and belonging. Through the eyes of these characters, we examine how these conflicting identities exist under the same roof of the United States.

In addition to plays, Akhtar has written two novels, American Dervish and Homeland Elegies. American Dervish is a coming-of-age story, set in a Muslim American community in Milwaukee. The novel tells the story of Hayat, a young Muslim woman searching for identity, love, and religious meaning amidst the conservative values of her community. It is a vivid portrait of two conflicting worlds—traditional Islam vs modern America—that blend together to create a tapestry of colorful characters.

In Homeland Elegies, Akhtar dives deep into the complexities of being an American immigrant and the difficulties of navigating a culture that is hostile to those from the Muslim faith. He explores the lasting impact of 9/11, drawing on personal memories and experience to tell a story that is distinct from immigrant fiction. Like his plays, this book contains elements of satire, joy & despair as he recounts the struggles of learning to navigate within the boundaries of a place that does not quite accept his culture or ethnicity.

In his writing, Ayad Akhtar often speaks to the industry’s glaring absence of narratives centering people of color and Muslims in America. His work is full of passion and courage as he paints a vivid picture of the cultural and religious conflict that immigrants face in their journey to assimilate and understand their place in America. Akhtar’s writing gives voice to those easily forgotten in society, making him one of the most important writers of our time.