Writing and Madness in a Time of Terror

Earning an MFA in writing at the New School, working at Rolling Stone magazine, and being courted by an editor at a prestigious publishing house--Afarin Majidi should be thrilled with the direction her life is taking as she turns thirty. Instead, she is spiraling into the depths of madness as she seeks love and acceptance in an Islamophobic society. After colleagues at the magazine drug and rape her, she's left with an unfinished novel. She turns to a former professor, James Lasdun,...
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Earning an MFA in writing at the New School, working at Rolling Stone magazine, and being courted by an editor at a prestigious publishing house--Afarin Majidi should be thrilled with the direction her life is taking as she turns thirty. Instead, she is spiraling into the depths of madness as she seeks love and acceptance in an Islamophobic society. After colleagues at the magazine drug and rape her, she's left with an unfinished novel. She turns to a former professor, James Lasdun, with whom she develops a toxic obsession. Majidi is the woman he calls "Nasreen" in his memoir, Give Me Everything You Have. Raw and honest, Writing and Madness in a Time of Terror is a haunting meditation on identity, misogyny, violence, and mental illness. Majidi earned her BA from Barnard College and an MFA from New School University. She is the niece of Abdol-Madgid Madgidi, a prominent cabinet member during the Shah of Iran's reign. Writing and Madness in a Time of Terror begins with her family's narrow escape from execution during the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.