An Evening of Stories with Firoozeh Dumas

Guest: Firoozeh Dumas

Firoozeh Dumas was born in Abadan, Iran, even though her birth certificate states she was born in Tehran. That is because her father Kazem, felt that being born in the more cosmopolitan capital would take her daughter further in life. It worked. Kazem's story telling was not limited to inventing chic birthplaces for his only daughter. He regaled the family with stories about growing up in Shushtar, swimming in the Karun River and winning a Fulbright to America in 1953, an experience that changed his life forever and made him the family expert on America. Firoozeh and her family believed everything Kazem said about Amreeka except for his far-fetched claim that Americans put ice in their tea. In 2001, after being a stay-at home for eight years, Firoozeh  joined a writers group in Palo Alto, and found her passion. Prior to joining the group, Firoozeh had never considered becoming a writer. To be a writer, she assumed, one had to be English and dead. Since then, she has written two memoirs, articles for major newspapers and magazines, a one-woman show, and many pieces for NPR.  You may have also heard her as a panelist on NPR's, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. She has also won many awards and also not won many awards, but came very, very close.  Her next book, a tween novel, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in Spring 2016. Firoozeh believes that storytelling is the only way to raise the compassion quota of the world.