Mohammad Asef Soltanzadeh (Persian: محمد آصف سلطانزاده) (also spelled Assef) was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1964, moved to Pakistan, then Iran in 1985, and in 2002, to Denmark. He is a writer specialising in prose and drama. He writes primarily in Persian.
"Discovered by the Iranian writer and critic Hushang Golshiri, he has published his short stories in various literary journals. When his book "We Disappear in Flight" was published in Tehran in 2000, he became famous among experts of literature in the Persian language (one of the literary languages of Afghanistan). In Iran a second volume of his short stories is being published."
His two collections of short stories, We Disappear in Flight and The Deserter won the prestigious Golshiri Award in Iran in 2001.
In 2002, when Afghans were no longer allowed to stay in Iran, he moved to Denmark.
His most recent collections of stories, in Persian, are:
We Disappear in Flight, Tehran: Agah, 2000.
Newyear's Day Is Delightful Only in Kabul
Now Denmark
The Deserter
You Who Are Here, This Is Not Your Land
Eden's Hell (2 binds), Copenhagen: Bita Book, 2009.
Book of Exodus, Copenhagen: Dyiar-e Ketab, 2011.
The Cinematographer of Noqrah, Copenhagen: Bita Book, Dec. 2011.
Alas, Mullah Omar, Copenhagen: Bita Book, 2013.
The brazen Bulls, Copenhagen: Bita Book, 2014.
Another Sea, Another Shore: Persian Stories of Migration. Ed. and trans. Shouleh Vatanabadi and Mohammad Mehdi Khorrami. Northampton, MA: Interlink Books, 2004.
"Sohrab's Wars: Counter Discourses of Contemporary Persian Fiction". Ed. and trans. Mohammad Mehdi Khorrami and Pari Shirazi. Costa Mesa, California, Mazda Publishers, Inc., 2008.
"Herfra min verden går. 23 flersprogede forfattere i Danmark". Copenhagen, Dansk PEN, 2009.
"Writing from Afghanistan". Ed. and trans. Anders Widmark. at the [2] website.
Golshiri Award, 2001 (Golshiri Foundation, Iran) - "for The Best First Collection of Short Stories, chosen for its impressive and macabre themes achieved through seemingly simple and unadorned language strewn with words and expressions from the author's homeland. Soltanzadeh's book has since been translated into French [Assef Soltanzadeh, Perdus dans la fuite, Actes sud, Paris, 2002] and Italian [M. A. Soltanzade, Perduti nella fuga, AIEP Editore, San Marino, 2002]."
Danish Refugee Council Artist Award, 2003.
Golshiri Award, 2007 (Golshiri Foundation, Iran) - for The Deserter, Award for the Best Collection of Short Stories.
Nawrooz Award, 2010 (Kabul, Afghanistan) - for "The Deserter", Award for the Best Collection of Afghan Short Stories of the Decade.
