Join Farhang Foundation at

America's Largest Annual Book Festival

and Learn about

Iran Through Books

We will be at booth #949

April 20-21, 2024

at the

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

at USC

This event is FREE and open to all!

Download Booth Map

– Guest Author Appearances –

About Rashin Kheiriyeh

Rashin Kheiriyeh is a multi-award-winning author-illustrator, animator, and painter who has more than ninety children’s books to her credit. Her books have been published in at least twelve countries, and she was nominated for the 2023 & 2024 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to children's literature. She is also the recipient of a Sendak Fellowship Award, a 2009 New Horizon Award (Bologna Ragazzi), and is a six-time winner of the Bologna Book Fair Illustration competition. Rashin Kheiriyeh is the character artist of the most popular animation series on national television in Iran called “Shekarestan” (“Sugarland”). She now lives in Washington, DC.

About Firooz Zahedi

Born in Iran in 1949, Firooz and his family moved to England ten years later where he received his secondary education. In 1969 he went to Washington DC and studied political science at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. After graduating and a brief career as a diplomat, he enrolled at the Corcoran School of Art and received a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Communications. During that period Firooz met Andy Warhol and went on to become the Washington DC correspondent for Interview magazine. This enabled him to showcase his portrait photography in that publication. His friend Elizabeth Taylor took him to Hollywood in 1978 as her personal photographer. Settling in Los Angeles he pursued a career as a portrait and advertising photographer. In time, he was shooting editorial and advertising campaigns featuring major celebrities. In the early 1990’s he was placed under contract with Vanity Fair magazine for which he shot many layouts and several covers.

He went on to work with a multitude of magazines including Entertainment Weekly, Town and Country, Time, Glamour, New Yorker, New York magazine, Tatler, British GQ, Vogue Paris, Esquire, Premiere and many others. Firooz created many iconic movie posters including those for Pulp Fiction, Edward Scissorhands, The Addams Family I &II, Father of the Bride II, Get Shorty and Jackie Brown. Other advertising clients include Coca Cola, Ebel, L’Oreal and Bulgari.He has shot several album covers for Barbra Streisand as well as Diana Ross. In addition he has photographed book covers for Jane Fonda, Ellen DeGeneres, Bob Newhart, and Goldie Hawn.

Besides portraits, Firooz has photographed interiors for major publications such as Architectural Digest, Elle Decor and House Beautiful. His true passion has always been to exhibit his fine art photography and his collages which he has succeeded to do at several prominent galleries and museums including Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, the Museum at the University of Santa Barbara, Staley Wise Gallery and Leila Heller Gallery, both in New York as well as Craig Krull Gallery and Paul Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles. In 2016 his book of photographs and short essays about his friend and mentor Elizabeth Taylor titled ‘My Elizabeth’ was published by Glitterati Incorporated. In 2018 his book of photographs of over twenty prominent homes in Los Angeles titled City of Angels was published by Vendome Press. Presently he is working on a book of his portraits which spans over a period of forty years.

About Josiane Cohanim

Josiane Cohanim was born in Iran, raised in Switzerland, and educated in the United States. She received her bachelor of arts degree in French and Spanish literature from Wheaton College in Massachusetts, a master's in French literature from Stanford University, and achieved candidacy at Stanford's French literature doctoral program.

More than one thousand years after Ferdowsi, Cohanim's personal journey came from a desire to make sense out of life and out of history. It led her to the close study and the translation of Ferdowsi's extraordinary work. As a text that helped her grasp a deeper understanding of life and of human nature, it inspired her to share its timeless wisdom with a wider audience.

About Omid Arabian

Omid Arabian is co-founder & director of YOUniversal Center, a non-profit educational organization where he conducts courses on Persian Mysticism & philosophy. He is also the author of three children’s books inspired by the mystical poetry of Rumi: The Heart’s Garden, The Donkey’s Gone!, and the just-published You Are Everything. His translations of Rumi’s poetry have been published in three volumes.