Ayda Niknami
The School of Creative Writing is pleased to congratulate Ayda Niknami, MFA. Ayda’s thesis is a stage play entitled Azar o Azadi.
Ayda Niknami (she/they) is a Qashqai-Irani queer femme residing in so-called “Vancouver”. She was the Poetry Editor for PRISM international (2024-2026), a finalist for The Bridge Prize (2024), shortlisted for The Malahat Review’s Open Season Poetry Award (2025), and published in an anthology by Guernica Editions (Woman, Life, Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution, 2025). Her writing explores Iranian diasporic subjectivity, love, and relational autonomy. Ayda holds an MFA in Creative Writing at UBC, and an MA in Philosophy from UC San Diego. When she’s not writing, she’s juggling her addiction to hot yoga with her addiction to cigarettes.
Azar o Azadi is a semi-autobiographical stage drama centered on Azar Momeni, a young Iranian woman, after, before, and during an episode of psychosis which takes place in the thick of the COVID-19 lockdown. As Azar navigates the implications of her new bipolar I diagnosis, including the perils of institutionalization, medication, and their possible legal consequences, she is forced to confront the tension between her creative drives and the possibility of building a new self-image under the shadow of suicidality. Azar’s relationships with those around her help her navigate her isolation, as she searches for a new kind of autonomy through art.
Contact
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