Aliyeh Ataei (Dari: عالیه عطایی; born June 3, 1981) is an Iranian-Afghan novelist and screenwriter. She has written many books and short stories for several magazines, including Guernica and Michigan Quarterly Review. The main subject of her work is the literature of immigration. She has received many literary awards, such as the Mehregan Adab.
Biography
Aliyeh Ataei was born on June 3, 1981, and lived in Darmian, a region near the border between South Khorasan Province in Iran and Farah Province in Afghanistan. As a woman in a minority group in Iran, she faced many challenges and unfair treatment, which led her to become an activist who fights for women's rights. Her work is greatly shaped by what she saw and experienced as a child.
Career
Ataei graduated from high school in Birjand and went to Tehran to continue her studies at Tehran University of Art, where she received her B.A. and M.A. degrees in screenplay writing. Ataei focused on writing about immigration. Beside publishing books, she has worked with several magazines such as Hamshahri, Tajrobeh, Saan, and Nadastan. Her short stories have been translated and published in several English and French magazines, including Michigan Quarterly Review and Guernica.
Works
- How Could Abel Be Killed by Cain? (2012)
- Kafourpoosh (2015)
- Eye of the Dog (2019)
- Koorsorkhi: A Story of Soul and War (2021)
- La Frontière des Oubliés (2023)
- Galileo, translated by Salar Abdoh, published by Words Without Borders (2019)
- The Alcove, translated by Salar Abdoh, published by Michigan Quarterly Review (2019)
- The Border Merchant, translated by Salar Abdoh, published by Quernica (2019)
- Parisian Coffee, translated by Mohammad Sarvi, published by The Bombay Review (2021)
- The Story of Women of Afghanistan: A Collection of Short Stories by Mohammad Hossein Mohammadi (Kabul, 2017)
- Sous le Ciel de Kaboul: A Collection of Short Stories by Khojesta Ebrahimi (Paris, 2018)
- No One’s Home: A Collection of Short Stories by Elham Fallah (Tehran, 2019)
- Tehran’s Valiasr Street: A Collection of Short Stories by Kaveh Fooladinasab (Tehran, 2021)
Awards
- The Mehregan-e-Adab Literary Award was given to Kafourpoosh in 2014.
- The Vav Literary Award was given to Kafourpoosh in 2014.
- The Dastan-e-Tehran Award was given to Thirty Kilometer, part of Eye of the Dog, in 2015.
- The Dastan-e-Tehran Award was given to Galileo, part of Eye of the Dog, in 2018.
- The Mashhad Literary Award was given to Eye of the Dog in 2021.
- The Asghar Abdullahi Literary Award was given to Koorsorkhi in 2021.
- The Ma Literary Award was given to Koorsorkhi in 2022.
Other works
- Was a member of the academy that gives the Hezar-o-Yek-Shab Literary Award in 2014
- Was a member of the academy that gives the Qand-e-Parsi Literary Award in 2017
- Was a member of the academy that gives the Ahmad Mahmoud Literary Award in 2020
- Was a member of the academy that gives the Fereshteh Literary Award in 2020