Gina B. Nahai

Gina B. Nahai (born 1961) is the author of Cry of the Peacock, Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith, Sunday's Silence and Caspian Rain. Her novels have been translated into more than a dozen languages. She is a Lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing (MPW) Program at the University of Southern California.

Gina Barkhordar Nahai was born and grew up in Iran during the Shah's reign, and left with her family shortly before the country's revolution. At age 13, she began attending boarding school in Switzerland and later moved to the United States in 1977, arriving in Los Angeles the night Elvis Presley died. At the time, she did not realize she was leaving Iran for good. In college, she studied political science, including Iran's pre- and post-revolutionary politics, at the University of California, Los Angeles for both her bachelor's and master's of art degrees. Nahai speaks Persian, English, French, and Spanish.

Nahai lives with her family in Los Angeles, where she teaches fiction writing at the University of Southern California's Master of Professional Writing program, where she also studied with John Rechy and earned her Master of Professional Writing degree. She previously taught at UCLA and worked at the RAND Corporation. She is a frequent lecturer on Iranian Jewish history and the topic of exile.

Nahai writes frequently for the Los Angeles-based Jewish Journal. She is currently working on a new novel, The Pearl Cannon.

Nahai and her writings have been nominated for and received numerous awards and honors. Following are some of the more prominent ones:

• 2013: LA Press Club, Best Columnist (finalist)
• 2008: Persian Heritage Award, first place
• 2007: Caspian Rain nominated by MacAdam Cage Publishing for the National Book Award
• 2007: Caspian Rain nominated by MacAdam Cage Publishing for the Pulitzer Prize
• 2007: Caspian Rain selected as “One of the Best Books of the Year,” Chicago Tribune
• 2002: Simon Rockower Award (winner)
• 2001: Sunday's Silence selected as “One of the Best Books of the Year,” Los Angeles Times
• 2000: Orange Prize for Fiction (finalist)
• 2000: IMPAC Award (finalist)
• 1999: Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith selected as “One of the Best Books of the Year,” Los Angeles Times
• 1992: Cry of the Peacock nominated by Crown Publishers for the Pulitzer Prize
• 1985: Nelson Algren Award, Chicago Magazine (honorable mention)

• "55th SoCal Journalism Awards" (PDF). LA Press Club. Retrieved 2013-06-04.