Nahid Rachlin (6 June 1939 – 30 April 2025) was an Iranian-American novelist and short story writer. She has been called "perhaps the most published Iranian author in the United States".
Life Nahid Rachlin was born 6 June 1939, in Abadan, Iran, the eighth of ten children (2 of whom had died before her birth) to Manoochehr and Mohtaram Bozorgmehri. Brought up by her mother's older sister from when she was not yet one until she was nine years old when her father who had been a circuit judge resigned and started a private practice. She then lived with her parents, who were emotionally distant, under the shadow of restrictive gender expectations. Her closest family relationship was with an older sister, Pari. Pari underwent arranged marriage to a physically abusive older man, and then lost access to her son after she sued for divorce. Pari remarried, but suffered episodes of mental breakdown for which she was institutionalised, and died young after a home accident.
Rachlin emigrated to the United States when she was 17, gaining a BA at Lindenwood College. In 1964, she married Howard Rachlin, a psychology professor, and in 1969 became a naturalized US citizen. They had a daughter named Leila. In the early 1970s she pursued graduate study in creative writing, writing short stories for a class with Richard Humphries at Columbia University, and for a class with Donald Barthelme at City College of New York. These stories won her the Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. In 1976 Rachlin returned to Iran for the first time in twelve years, drawing on the experience for her debut novel Foreigner.
Rachlin died from a stroke at a hospital in Manhattan, New York, on 30 April 2025, at the age of 85.
Works Foreigner. New York: Norton, 1978.Reviewed by Anne Tyler, The New York Times Book Review, 18 February 1979, p.3. Married to a stranger. New York : Dutton, 1983.Reviewed, Publishers Weekly, 22 July 1983, p.118Reviewed by Carolyn See, Los Angeles Times, 16 September 1983, p.20.Reviewed by Barbara Thompson, The New York Times Book Review, 2 October 1983, p.14.Reviewed, Publishers Weekly, 31 May 1993, p.47Reviewed by Saïdeh Pakravan, Belles Lettres, Spring 1994, p.53 Veils: short stories. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1992.Reviewed, Publishers Weekly, 20 April 1992, p.19.Reviewed by Charles Solomon, Los Angeles Times Book Review, 20 May 1992, p.18.Reviewed by Marilyn Booth, Belles Lettres, Fall, 1992, p.52.Reviewed by Laurel Graeber, The New York Times Book Review, 29 November 1992, p.18.Reviewed by Carolyne Wright, Harvard Review, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring 1993), p.1-2. The heart's desire: a novel. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1995.Reviewed, Publishers Weekly, 2 October 1995, p.66.Reviewed by Nasrin Rahimieh, World Literature Today, Spring 1996, p.463. Jumping over fire. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2005.Reviewed, Publishers Weekly, 23 January 2006, p.186.Reviewed by Donna Chavez, Booklist, 1 March 2006, p.67Reviewed by Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times, 21 July 2006, p.137.Reviewed by Christine C. Menefee, School Library Journal, August 2006, p.145.Reviewed by Aména Moïnfar, MELUS, Summer 2008, p.181 Persian girls: a memoir. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 2006.Reviewed, Publishers Weekly, 7 August 2006, p.45. A Way Home: stories. Edmonds, Washington: Ravenna Press, 2018.
References
Further reading
External links nahidrachlin.com Interview with Nahid Rachlin Talking with a Pioneer of Iranian-American Literature: An Interview with Nahid Rachlin conducted by Persis Karim at ArteEast, Summer 2007