Amirhossein Khorshidfar (born in Tehran, 1981) is an award-winning Iranian author, literary critic, and journalist. He is best known for his short story collection Life Goes on According to Your Will, published in 2006. Although he graduated with a B.A. in industrial design from the University of Art and Architecture in Tehran, he did not pursue a career in that field.
In 2001, Khorshidfar authored four children’s books with Mohammadali Baniasadi as one of the illustrators: The First Days on Earth, The Day the Sky Broke, The Boy Who Had No Star, and The Rain Story. The following year, his short story “Neighbor” was selected for the Sadegh Hedayat literary award.
His short story collection Life Goes on According to Your Will was published in 2006. This collection of ten short stories won prestigious literary awards and was nominated for the best literary fiction of the year. It was even selected as the best short story collection of the decade in opinion polls conducted by Hamshahri newspaper and Chelcheragh weekly magazine among Iranian authors and critics. In 2009, Khorshidfar rewrote and published Shahab-Addin Sohrevardi’s Stories.
From 2008 to 2011, Khorshidfar served as a jury member for both the Roozi Roozegari and Golshiri literary awards. He also worked as a literary editor at Ofoq publication from 2010 to 2013. During this time, Ofoq won the national award for the best foreign literary book and the best Persian story collection for the first time in its history.
Khorshidfar pursued a career in journalism, contributing to established Iranian reformist newspapers such as Bahar, Shargh, Etemad, and Roozegar from 2006 to 2015. He edited the 47th volume of Nafe literary magazine and published a series of articles on the presence of urban spaces in the work of Iranian authors in the Cinema and Literature Magazine.
In recent years, Khorshidfar has taught literary courses such as “How fiction is made,” “Modernism in European novels,” “20th-century novels,” “How to enjoy literature,” “Novella,” and “Persian fiction forms” at institutions like Rokhdad-e-Taze, Baharan, Maktab-e-Tehran, and Up-Art-Maan. He has also been a lecturer for short literary courses at Tehran University.
In 2017, Khorshidfar translated the novel Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark into Farsi in collaboration with Bahar Ahmadifard. He also published his novel Tehraniha and his short story collection Betting on a Race Horse and Other Short Stories. Tehraniha has been republished three times in a short period. Currently, he is working on two other novels and a literary essay collection.
Education
- 2004 BA in Industrial Design, University of Art and Architecture, Tehran
Professional Experience
Editing
- 2017 – Present Founder & Editor, Poetica Project
- Established a thriving online literary community and journal, publishing high-quality content and engaging followers across social media platforms.
- 2011 – 2014 Publishing Editor, Ofoq Publications
Teaching/Lectures
- 2015 – Present Creative Writing Workshops Conducted creative writing workshops at institutions like Art University of Tehran, Upartmaan Cultural Center, and Baharan Interdisciplinary School.
- 2018 THE BUILDING OF A STORY, THE STORY OF A BUILDING/ Instructors:Rojia Forouhar, Amir Hossein Khorshidfar
- 2017 “Invisible Tehrans” (with Rojia Frouhar and Amir Hossin Taheri), Contemporary Architecture Center
- 2016 “The Realization of Form” (On Five Distinctive Novellas Of Iran’s Modern Literature)
- 2016 “The Joy of Fictions” (On Perception, Interpretation and Evaluation of Literary Works)
- 2015 “Memory and Isolation Of The Twentieth-century Literature”
- 2014 “The Poetics of Modern Literature”
- Literary Expertise
- 2008-2011 Jury Member, Roozi Roozegari Literary Award
- 2011 Jury Member, Mehregan Literary Award
- 2011 Jury Member, Golshiri Literary Award
Publications
- 2017 Tehranis, Nashre Markaz (Novel)
- 2017 Betting On The Racehorse and Other Stories, Saless Publication (Short Story Collection)
- 2009 Shahabuddin Soharwardi Stories, Paarseh Publishing House
- 2006 Life Goes on According to Your Will, Nashre Markaz (Short Story Collection)
- 2001 The First Days on Earth, Mahriz Publication (Children’s literature)
- 2001 The Day the Sky Broke, Mahriz Publication (Children’s literature)
- 2001 The Boy Who Had No Star and the Rain Story, Mahriz Publication (Children’s literature)
- 2017 Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark (Co-translated)
Awards & Honors
- 2006 Gam-e-aval, Roozi Roozegari, Mehregan, Golshiri Literary Award (For: The Short Story Collection “Life Goes on According to Your Will”)