Naz Riahi

Cry Cry Cry 47 Years of Tyranny and What Happened in Iran Today

It was so difficult to write this, but I wanted to offer some nuance and a point of connection. open.substack.com/pub/inalette...

@nazriahi.bsky.social very rightfully said:

Playwright Gina Young Answers The Rejection Questionnaire A series on how artists cope with rejection

In a new series, I interview artists about how they cope with rejection. Ten questions with vulnerable, revelatory answers about something they is often a huge part of our lives and artistic practices.

open.substack.com/pub/inalette...

My Vertigo Or How to Write an Essay (sort of)...

A sort of writing craft essay walking you through how I wrote my current piece in Harper’s Bazaar.

open.substack.com/pub/inalette...

I Left Iran as a Child. I Search for Hope in the Uprisings. A daughter of the Iranian diaspora grapples with feelings of hopefulness and futility during an extraordinary moment of protests.

New essay in @harpersbazaar.com.web.brid.gy about this intense political moment in Iran (and the US) in which I attempt to understand my own numbness. www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/feat...

I didn’t realize this would hit so hard but my post on how to leave Spotify has gone viral on Instagram and hundreds of people have replied saying they did it! It’s truly a painless process. Thinking about doing it is more arduous than doing it.

Deborah Messing in the “trenches” with IDF, celebrating with selfie videos as humans get slaughtered. This woman is trash. Racist trash.

Got to meet the only person giving me hope these days @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social and feel so privileged to get to support his campaign for mayor. Please get out there volunteer for him and tell everyone you know to show up and vote for this historic candidate.

All Senator Padilla wanted was to do his job and get the questions his constituents had answered — instead, he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed.

This is Donald Trump's America, where they attack our freedoms.

We cannot be intimidated or scared by their abuses of power.

Exile Is a Prison 36 years...

Wrote an essay about exile, on the 36th anniversary of leaving Iran, and as I consider my future in this country...
inaletter.substack.com/p/exile-is-a...

Israeli Airstrikes Kill Dozens in Northern Gaza Overnight, Hospital Director Says

Israeli strikes killed dozens of Palestinians in northern Gaza overnight, Palestinian health officials said on Wednesday, as Israel threatens to ramp up its military campaign in the enclave despite mounting international pressure.

Ok. Maybe I’m just now an Older Fan and am lost between the meme and the supposed troll account and even the punctuation because, I am I even a writer any more? But also, how can the world just keep going? How can folks go to the met ball while a people are being starved and torn apart.

If you didn’t put in the work to write it, and have such low expectations of yourself, I will not put in the work to read it.

Using AI to write papers is like bringing a forklift to the gym.

This will sound weird but love yourself enough to write your own term papers.

Montauk, NY Writers Are Talking to Me

I wrote about my resistance to leave home and my first few days at The Edward Albee Foundation where I’m a writing fellow and where other writers, like @alexanderchee.bsky.social are sending me messages through their books. Very big vibes here.

open.substack.com/pub/inalette...

I’m headed to the Edward Albee Foundation for a residency and feeling immensely grateful to him for creating this invaluable opportunity. I can’t wait to be in the house he and his partner shared for so many years. Hoping his spirit will move my pen, if it’s not too much to ask ;)

What is journalism, and why does it matter? - Nieman Storyboard Pulitzer Prize-winner Mary Schmich's new podcast, plus Livingston Awards and local storytelling in Charlotte, North Carolina

Our Friday newsletter: How do you define journalism?

Plus: Mary Schmich revisits Studs Terkel's "Division Street," Livingston Award finalists, @michaelngraff.bsky.social's stories about Charlotte, and @nazriahi.bsky.social's ode to rejection.

niemanstoryboard.org/2025/04/25/w...

#storytelling

So Difficult. So Worth It. The road to success is paved with rejection...

I know we all feel some way about rejection, but I'm surprised and delighted by all the responses to this short essay on my own experiences with rejection as an artist and writer and how I cope. Thanks to everyone reading, engaging with and sharing this. inaletter.substack.com/p/so-difficu...

So Difficult. So Worth It. The road to success is paved with rejection...

Love this ode to rejection by the great @nazriahi.bsky.social.

inaletter.substack.com/p/so-difficu...

#writing #booksky

Thank you, Mark!! 💕💕💕

What Will You Do? What’s your “I am Spartacus” move to protect the more vulnerable, the targeted, the invisibled, the next-on-the-list?

If you read one thing today…this week…this month…let it be this extraordinary and essential essay by Kaveh Akbar in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/acti...

The Great Resegregation The Trump administration’s attacks on DEI are aimed at reversing the civil-rights movement.

“We are now in the second decade of a years-long temper tantrum sparked by the election of Barack Obama—not to mention the failed attempts to elect a woman to succeed him...”

@adamserwer.bsky.social

www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Tyranny requires your fear, your silence, and your compliance.

Democracy requires your courage.

My mother and brother are finally vindicated.

I have a short story, The Desert, in the new issue of A Public Space, which is extra thrilling as I’ve loved the journal and wanted to be published by them since their inception. Keywords for this story: mothers and daughters, oy. Mickalene Thomas. Wanda. Pippa Bacca. Gay gay gay. Coyotes. Desert.

Disappearing Earth A view from the top

Wrote about two moments I’ve experienced when life was most present and disappearing simultaneously. It was a week. And just the start.

inaletter.substack.com/p/disappeari...

Trash.

Going to de-activate Twitter, but don’t want anyone to ever forget my greatest accomplishment so far was taking this picture.