Shokoofeh Azar

Born in Iran in 1972, Shokoofeh Azar was the first Iranian woman to hitchhike the entire length of the Silk Road. She worked as a journalist and field reporter in Iran, covering human rights issues. After several arrests in connection with her work as a journalist, on advice from her family she fled Iran in 2010 and was granted asylum in Australia, where she has lived as a political refugee since 2011. Her first novel, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree, was shortlisted for the Stella Prize for Fiction and the International Booker Prize, and was a finalist for the PEN America Award and the National Book Award for Translated Literature.