RNZ - All Programmes

Author Ayad Akhtar on identity in a post 9/11, Trump America

10.20.2020 - By RNZPlay

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

Award-winning playwright and novelist Ayad Akhtar was born in America to Pakistani immigrants, much of his work invokes themes of religion, economics, identity and the American-Muslim experience. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2013 for his play 'Disgraced', which addresses what it was like to be Muslim in America following the September 11 attacks. It's a theme drawn on in his new novel, Homeland Elegies, which opens with the main character's father developing a short and unlikely "friendship" with Donald Trump after treating him once for a heart condition. Ayad insists the book is a novel - but draws heavily on his life. He was last month named the new president of PEN America, the human rights and literary organisation. He joins Kathryn from New York.

More episodes from RNZ - All Programmes