Maryam Ala Amjadi is an Iranian writer, translator, and researcher. She is the author of two poetry collections, a poetry chapbook, and the translator of a selection of Raymond Carver’s poems into Persian. She won the ‘Young Generation Poet’ Prize in the inaugural Yinchuan International Poetry Festival in China and was a writer-in-residence at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Her short story The Ice Seller of Hell won the 2024 Elizabeth Alexander Award and will be published in the Meridians journal (Duke University Press). Ala Amjadi was previously a writer for the Tehran Times Daily, where she founded and wrote a weekly page dedicated to the socio-cultural nuances of Iran. In 2017, she earned a joint Ph.D. in interdisciplinary literary studies as an Erasmus Mundus fellow from Kent (UK) and Porto (Portugal) universities. Her poems and translations of contemporary Iranian poets have been anthologized internationally, and her poetry has been translated into multiple languages. Her most recent book, Where Is the Mouth of That Word? (Selected Poems) was published by Poetrywala in 2022.

Douglas Unger has authored five novels, including Leaving the Land, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, his newest, Dream City, and short fiction, Looking for War and Other Stories. He is co-founder of the Creative Writing International program at UNLV and serves on the executive board of Words Without Borders.

Parking/getting there: Parking on UNLV’s campus is free and open to all after 7 p.m.; reserved parking spots are enforced 24 hours a day, but you may park in any staff, student or paid spots. To find the Rogers Literature & Law Building, please turn onto East Harmon Ave and take it as far as you can into campus. We encourage you to park in Lot I or Lot J as they’re closest to our building. 

Questions? Please email blackmountaininstitute@unlv.edu or call (702) 895-5542. 

This City of Asylum fellowship is supported by The Eleanor Kagi Foundation – A Lynn M. Bennett Legacy. This program is also supported in part by a grant from the Amazon Literary Partnership.