Artist-Writer of Persepolis to Speak at UT Dallas

The bestselling author and illustrator of critically acclaimed Persepolis, an autobiographical graphic novel about life in Iran that was turned into an Oscar-nominated film, speaks Friday at UT Dallas.

Marjane Satrapi will appear at the Conference Center at 7:30 p.m as part of the Arts & Letters Live series, held by the Dallas Museum of Art in partnership with the UT Dallas School of Arts and Humanities. Tickets are available through the DMA.

Originally published to wide acclaim in France, Persepolis is Satrapi’s wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and the war with Iraq.

In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her childhood – at once both outrageous and ordinary – beset by the unthinkable but buffered by an extraordinary and loving family.

Satrapi adapted her work to an animated film, which she co-directed, and Persepolis won the Jury Prize in May 2007 at the Cannes Film Festival. The film was nominated for Best Foreign Film at this year’s Academy Awards.

She followed up Persepolis with Persepolis 2, the story of her exile in Austria and return to Iran. Publishers Weekly says of Persepolis 2, “If Part Two covers less-traumatic events, it’s also more subtle and, in some ways, more moving.”

The only child in a privileged, intellectual family, Marjane Satrapi grew up in Tehran before moving, alone, to Vienna at age 14 for her personal safety and her studies. She lived there during her high school years and returned to Iran to attend the Graphic Institute.

Satrapi currently lives in Paris, where her writings and illustrations appear regularly in newspapers and magazines.