Author Spotlight: Kaveh Akbar

There is something sacred about the way Kaveh Akbar writes. His works carry the weight of addiction, the ache of longing, and the strange holiness of trying to stay alive. He writes like someone who’s seen the abyss and still believes in the light. This is crystal clear in his debut novel; Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning - in faith, art, ourselves and others.

What was your inspiration to become a writer?

When I was a teenager, I was first introduced to poetry in high school. I had an English teacher who read Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Facing It,” and it just lit me up. It was like the clouds parted, and the angels came through with trumpets. It was a shock of clarity at a time when I was a kid who felt complicated about being alive. I went to the 811.5 section of my library, and I saw all these books of poetry and all of these names of people on the spines of the books. I wrote to this day to be a spine on that shelf.

Who is one of your inspirations?

One of my favorite all time writers is the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. If I was stuck on an island with three writers, he would probably be one of them. He was famously obsessed with infinity, and one of his favorite models for infinity was the Sahara Desert. Later in life when he goes to the Sahara and he reaches for a scoopful of sand, he lets it sift through his fingers and says, “I am modifying the Sahara.” That was his great epiphany, and I get goosebumps thinking about how he was modifying infinity. I find that so profound.

What role does literature and writing have in your life?

When I look at a blank page, that is a channel of my action. When I write, I don’t write a poem about the unhoused in my community and then say,

“Oh, the job is done.” I write the poem and then I buy socks, Clif bars, and maxi pads and take them to the mission, and that is how poetry works. It points me to the action. What is happening now is that we are being shot at with a firehose of meaningless language - the endless scrolls. When we write poems, when we write thoughtful artful writing, we are slowing down the metabolization of writing. There is no way to read a poem like you go through Instagram. That is the channel of action I am interested in. That is my part in this.

Why does the title of your novel Martyr! have an exclamation point?

When a book is called Martyr, objectively, it would seem dour, relentless, and punishing by anyone. I hope that when my book is sad, that it is a sadness that is complex because there is great joy and lightness in the book. And I hope that when there is joy and lightness, it is made deep by having profound grief because that is how my living feels. I want my art to reflect that concurrentness. I am having a nice time right now even as I am aware of all the current ills in the world. That feels like what’s at the atomic core of the modern condition.

Who are your favorite poets?

My top three at this moment are Rumi, John Berryman, and Adélia Prado. If I had a “desert island” poem, it would be “Eleven Addresses to the Lord” by John Berryman.