Mohammad Mohammadali

Mohammad Mohammadali was a prominent contemporary Iranian writer.

Born on April 27, 1948, in Tehran, he developed a passion for the arts and sports while attending Marvi High School. He acted in school plays and served as captain of the volleyball team. He cultivated a strong interest in journalism and writing while working on the school yearbook, receiving a National Top Yearbook Journalism Award.

While completing his degree in Political Science, he published his second short story collection, Those Better Than Us, in 1978, which earned him membership in the Iranian Writers’ Association. Immersed in an organization dedicated to defending literary freedom, he remained a persistent critic of censorship and a tireless advocate for freedom of speech in Iran.

Mohammadali emerged as a major voice in Iranian literature, renowned for his penetrating portrayals of working-class life and his keen social insight into revolution and war in contemporary Iran. He wrote extensively in both short fiction and novels. Among his most famous novels are Thunder Without Rain (1991), Concealed Image (1991), The Dead Man’s Beliefs (1997), and Naked in the Wind (2000) (winner of the Yalda Award). His acclaimed short story collections include Retirement and Other Stories (1985) (winner of the 20 Years Literary Award), Alas, What Lies Ahead (1999), and Second Eye (2003).

In addition to his socially grounded narratives, he increasingly turned to myth and cultural memory as a literary framework. Drawing extensively on ancient myths and cultural memory, he wrote some of his most widely recognized works. The Trilogy of Creation—Adam and Eve (2002), Jamshid and Jamak (2006) and Mashya and Mashyaneh (2007). Across these works, he blurred the boundaries between fiction, philosophy, and mythological inquiry.

Mohammadali was an active member of the Iranian Writers’ Association, serving on the “Committee of Eight” and as one of the signatories of the influential “134 Iranian Writers” declaration, titled “We Are the Writers”(1994), a collective statement calling for freedom of expression and an end to censorship. This act of dissent placed its signatories at serious risk amid the repression and targeted killings of Iranian writers. He was also among the twenty passengers on the so-called “Armenian Bus” in 1996, an incident in which a group of writers travelling to Armenia narrowly escaped a suspected attempt on their lives.

In 2009, Mohammadali immigrated to Vancouver, Canada, with his wife to be closer to their grandchildren and family. He continued teaching creative writing workshops in Vancouver, a chapter of his life that had begun in 2001 in Tehran. Over the course of 22 years, he mentored new generations of writers in Iran and abroad, making a lasting contribution to Iranian literature and the emerging body of immigrant literature.

Several of his later works were published after he immigrated to Canada, including The World of the Living (2015), Reality and Dream 2 (2021), From Keyumars to Homay (2015) and Striped Orations (2023). Mohammad Mohammadali received two recognitions from the Parliament of Canada for his contributions to human rights and literature, presented at an award ceremony in Vancouver in June 2023. He passed away in Vancouver at the age of 75 on September 14, 2023, and was laid to rest at Capilano View Cemetery in West Vancouver.

Bibliography of Mohammad Mohammadali

Fiction (Short Stories & Novels)

  • The Valley of Hindabad Has Wolves (1975) — short story collection
  • The Better Ones Among Us (1978) — short story collection
  • Retirement (1985) — short story collection
  • Thunder Without Rain (1991) — novel
  • The Hidden Role (1991) — novel
  • The Wet Beliefs of a Dead Man (1997) — novel
  • Five Years Before 1985 (1999) — travelogue
  • Alas, Face to Face (1999) — short story collection
  • The Second Eye (2003) — short story collection
  • Naked in the Wind (2000) — novel
  • Adam and Eve (2002) — research-based novel
  • The Tale of Tahmineh (2003) — research-based novel
  • Jamshid and Jamak (2006) — research-based novel
  • Mashi and Mashyaneh (2007) — research-based novel
  • The World of the Living (2015) — novel
  • Striped Orations: An Unfinished Story (2023) — novel

Research & Criticism

  • From Keyumars to Homay: Stories of the Shahnameh as Narrated by Mohammad Mohammadali (2015) — research
  • An Essay on the Culture of “Vagh-Vagh-e Sahab” (2016) — literary criticism

Interviews, Articles & Conversations

  • Conversations with Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, Ahmad Shamlu, and Mehdi Akhavan-Sales (1993) — interviews
  • The Shamlu I Knew (2013) — essays and conversations

Conversation Books

  • A Keepsake on Others’ Walls (2024) — collection of essays and conversations (with Bahareh Dehghardi)
  • Reality and Dream (2004) — interview with Alireza Pirouzan
  • From the Depth of the Valley to the Trilogy “The First Day of Love” (2005) — edited by Faramarz Pournorouz
  • Reality and Dream 2 (2021) — interview with Bahareh Dehghardi