Ayad Akhtar
Ayad Akhtar is a novelist and playwright. His work has been published and performed in over two dozen languages. He is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Edith Wharton Citation of Merit for Fiction, and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Akhtar is the author of Homeland Elegies (Little, Brown & Co.), which was called “a masterpiece” (Publisher’s Weekly) and “a tour de force” (The Washington Post) and selected by The New York Times as one of its ten best books of the year. His first novel, American Dervish (Little, Brown & Co.), was published in over 20 languages. As a playwright, his works at Lincoln Center Theater include Junk (Kennedy Prize for American Drama, Tony Award nomination), Disgraced (also Broadway; Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tony Award nomination) and The Who & The What. His other plays include The Invisible Hand (NYTW; Obie Award, Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award, Olivier, and Evening Standard nominations). Among other honors, Akhtar is the recipient of the Steinberg Playwrighting Award, the Nestroy Award, the Erwin Piscator Award, as well as fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, MacDowell, the Sundance Institute, and Yaddo, where he serves as a Board Director. Additionally, Ayad is a Board Trustee at PEN America, where he served as President from 2020 - 2023. In 2021, Akhtar was named the New York State Author, succeeding Colson Whitehead, by the New York State Writers Institute.
LCT Shows
LCT Blog Posts
Ayad Akhtar Has the Final Word
JUNK Platform with Ayad Akhtar and Doug Hughes
Ayad Akhtar Unpacks JUNK
"The who and the what" of Zarina
"The who and the what" of Afzal
"The who and the what" of Eli
"The who and the what" of Mahwish
Ayad Akhtar explains THE WHO & THE WHAT
Welcome Back, Ayad and Kimberly!
An interview with the author and director of DISGRACED
A chat with Ayad Akhtar