Ayad Akhtar
American playwright and novelistWikipedia
29
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10
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Search complete. 29 mentions across 10 episodes found for "Ayad Akhtar".
Oct 2, 2026
Kate EvansHOST
His new one is called The Bridge.
Cassie McCulloughHOST
And also a novel from the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and novelist Ayad Akhtar.
Cassie McCulloughHOST
It's called The Radiance.
Kate EvansHOST
But we'll begin with the latest from American writer Barbara Kingsolver, just as soon as we say hello to fellow reviewers, novelist Hannah Kent and theatre writer Tom Wright.
11 MINS LATER
Cassie McCulloughHOST
I also felt like sometimes it was sort of obvious and rewriting a history of something that may or may not have happened in a way that sounded tuneful to her.
Cassie McCulloughHOST
What about you, Kate?
Kate EvansHOST
Well, the tuneful one is interesting because particularly later on when we get to the Ayad Akhtar book, because I think they're doing some quite similar things, almost for a different audience, about the power of art, in Akhtar's case, it's literature in King Solver's Place.
Kate EvansHOST
I mean, some of it is about literature and the rest of it is about music.
Craig CohenHOST
Also this hour, the history and impact of the Trinity River in Texas.
Craig CohenHOST
Plus, a pair of events in Houston in the coming days celebrate the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and author Ayad Akhtar.
Craig CohenHOST
We'll learn about both events.
Craig CohenHOST
We'll start with a news update from NPR and News 88.7. Stay with us.
38 MINS LATER
Craig CohenHOST
Scott, thanks for talking with us.
Scott McFarlaneGUEST
Yeah, thanks very much for having me.
Craig CohenHOST
And still to come, two local groups celebrate the works of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and novelist Ayad Akhtar with events this month.
Craig CohenHOST
We learn about them both as Houston Matters continues on News 88 7 and YouTube.
Geoff BennettHOST
A Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and author has a new novel that explores big questions about states of being and the state of America today.
Geoff BennettHOST
Senior Arts Correspondent Jeffrey Brown talks with Ayad Akhtar for our arts and culture series, Canvas.
Jeffrey BrownCORRESPONDENT
A writer named Ayad Akhtar who rides his bike on a rural road in upstate New York and writes a story about a writer named Ayad Akhtar who rides his bike on a rural road and one day is hit by a pickup truck.
Jeffrey BrownCORRESPONDENT
What's true? What's fiction? What is a story anyway?
Ayad AkhtarGUEST
What I'm really after is trying to find the reader where they are today.
Jeffrey BrownCORRESPONDENT
In his Pulitzer Prize-winning 2012 play Disgraced, it was Muslim identity and religion in post-9/11 America.
Jeffrey BrownCORRESPONDENT
And other plays and books have taken on large subjects in both subtle and overt ways, often picking up on aspects of Akhtar's own life as a Pakistani American raised in Milwaukee, making his way as a writer who is both insider and, in some important ways, outsider.
Jeffrey BrownCORRESPONDENT
In The Radiance, the duality is direct as the character Ayad Akhtar teaches a course, Investigations in Autofiction, while the writer writes it.
Vivek MurthyHOST
We feel, we perceive, we have experiences, all of which have bearing on our ability to heal, but can be hard to understand or quantify.
Vivek MurthyHOST
How much of the human experience can really be measured? And in modern life, what does it mean to hold space for what's often considered mysterious, mystical, or spiritual? These are some of the questions at the very heart of writer Ayad Akhtar's latest novel, The Radiance.
Vivek MurthyHOST
Hayad is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and playwright.
Vivek MurthyHOST
His latest book is a campus novel set in upstate New York, where a writer and professor experiences a terrifying accident, and along with it, a striking and unexpected awakening.
Vivek MurthyHOST
And for all of our listeners, this is an extraordinary book.
Vivek MurthyHOST
It's a campus novel set in a rural town.
Vivek MurthyHOST
And it tells this extraordinary story of a writer and a professor who happens to be named Ayad Akhtar, who's recovering from a hit-and-run bike accident.
Vivek MurthyHOST
And there's an extraordinary turn of events that take place, you know, over the unfolding of this book, but it raises these fascinating questions I found just about trauma, about campus politics, about polarization, about friendship, but also some really deep spiritual questions that the narrator ends up pondering.
Liberty HardyHOST
It is Dodge City by Patrick DeWitt.
Liberty HardyHOST
And this other one that I want to tell you about, The Radiance by Ayad Akhtar.
Liberty HardyHOST
I haven't read it, but it sounds incredible.
Liberty HardyHOST
It's getting all the rave reviews.
Liberty HardyHOST
That book blew my mind.
Liberty HardyHOST
So I'm hoping this will do the same.
Liberty HardyHOST
It is The Radiance by Ayad Akhtar.
Liberty HardyHOST
More notables out today.
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FX's American Horror Story 13, now streaming on Hulu.
David BrooksHOST
Ayad Akhtar is one of America's leading playwrights and writers.
David BrooksHOST
His plays, like The Disgraced, which won a Pulitzer Prize, and his earlier novels, including Homeland Elegies, often describe what it's like to be a Muslim American in the post 9/11 era.
David BrooksHOST
His characters, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, are often coping with rage, pressure, resentments, hostility, a feeling of being judged.
David BrooksHOST
If you come along for the ride, I think the conversation will have the same effect on you.
David BrooksHOST
I'm David Brooks, and this is The Permanent Questions.
David BrooksHOST
[upbeat music] Ayad Akhtar, welcome to The Permanent Questions.
Ayad AkhtarGUEST
Thank you, David.
Cassie McCulloughHOST
Looking forward to that.
Cassie McCulloughHOST
Also, Colm Tobin's The Bridge and Ayad Akhtar's The Radiance.
Cassie McCulloughHOST
I'm Kate Evans.
Cassie McCulloughHOST
I'm Cassie McCullough.
Deandra LalondeGUEST
It's really nice.
Nathan MaharajHOST
Tell me about the radiance by Ayad Akhtar.
Deandra LalondeGUEST
Yeah, so he was the author of Homeland Elegies that people might be familiar with.
Deandra LalondeGUEST
And this one follows a writer after a hit and run accident.
Deandra LalondeGUEST
It's really nice.
Nathan MaharajHOST
Tell me about the radiance by Ayad Akhtar.
Deandra LalondeGUEST
Yeah, so he was the author of Homeland Elegies that people might be familiar with.
Deandra LalondeGUEST
And this one follows a writer after a hit and run accident.
Joumana KhatibGUEST
Oh.
Joumana KhatibGUEST
[laughs] This is called The Radiance by Ayad Akhtar.
Joumana KhatibGUEST
If you're a reader, you probably know him for Homeland Elegies, which is one of The Book Review's ten best books of the year in twenty twenty.
Joumana KhatibGUEST
He's also a really decorated playwright.
Joumana KhatibGUEST
It's, okay, so it's, it's, it's autofictional.
Joumana KhatibGUEST
Stay with me here.
Joumana KhatibGUEST
It follows a character who is a writer named Ayad Akhtar, who moves from New York City to the Hudson Valley during the pandemic.
Joumana KhatibGUEST
He gets a adjunct teaching job at this small college where he has a friend who's a professor, and he decides to set up a course called Discoveries in Autofiction or something like that.