Kaveh Akbar

Kaveh Akbar (born January 15, 1989; Persian: کاوه اکبر) is an Iranian-American poet, novelist, and editor. He is the author of the poetry collections Calling a Wolf a Wolf and Pilgrim Bell and of the novel Martyr!, a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist.

Akbar is director of the University of Iowa's undergraduate creative writing program. He is the founder of Divedapper and Poetry Editor of The Nation. In 2018, NPR called him "poetry's biggest cheerleader". In 2024, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and Time magazine put him on its TIME100 Next List.